Easy homemade freezer jam

I found some freezer jam making stuff on clearance at Target.  It sat in the pantry for nearly a year before I decided to give it a try last summer.   I’ve never made jam before and pretty much winged it.

The first batch was raspberry-blueberry.  It was delicious!!!!!   My daughter  ate a whole jar of it herself in two days.  She declared we should never buy jam at the store again.  She even told the waitress at Cracker Barrel, “No, thank you.” when she offered her jam.  “It won’t be as good as what my mom makes.”

Here’s my method:

1. Wash and chop (if necessary) about 4 cups of fruit.  (I leave the peels on.)
2. Simmer it in a pan with 1/2 a cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice
3. Once the fruit is soft, smash it up.  (Or put it in a blender, but my kiddo loves using the manual potato masher on it.)
4. Stir in 2 tablespoons of pectin.
5.  Pour into plastic freezer safe containers with lids.
6. Let sit on the counter until cool.
7. Put one container in the fridge to enjoy right away and the rest in the freezer.

Easy peasy.

We’ve done:

• blueberry-raspberry (with lemon juice)
•  peach (with lemon juice and a little ginger)
• cherry (with lime juice)

SOOO yummy!

I saw a recipe for jam using chia seeds instead of pectin on Facebook last night.  I have some strawberries in the fridge and chia seeds in the pantry, so I’m going to give it a whirl today.