Strawberry season is winding down early around here, but berry season as a whole has just begun. The black caps and mulberries are ripe, the raspberries are next, and blueberries and blackberries are on the horizon.
We make our jam with honey, and not much of it. We don't eat a ton of sweets around here so no one seems to mind if our jam is more fruity than dessert-y.
While apples, pears, and citrus are in a different jamming category, feel free to improvise the recipe below with whatever berries you have on hand. The batch below included some rhubarb mixed in with the strawberries.
For thickening without much sugar, we use natural pectin from the coop called Pomona's. It is a two-part process with a calcium water component and a pectin component. When combined they thicken the jam. So cool.
Pamona's is the only way I have found to successfully make a thick, low-sugar jam. We tried making our own pectin last year out of apples but made more of a sauce than a jam. A worthwhile experiment that I may try again some day, but for now I'm happy with the store-bought version and crazy thick jam.
Any Berry Jam
4 C berries (ripe, stemmed, and mashed)
1/3 – 1 C honey (we used 1/2 since we added rhubarb)
1/4 tsp stevia (optional)
1/4 package of Pamona's pectin
Wash, stem, and mash berries with a potato masher. Proceed according to the pectin instructions, adding the calcium water to the fruit mash and the pectin to the honey. Cook for two minutes. Fill sterilized jars, cap, and hot water bath can for 5 minutes.
Yum! We use honey too, and I mostly make freezer jam so we don’t need to use pectin or too much sugar and I love the red red red of the uncooked berries (we use agar to thicken for uncooked). Pamona’s is great for canned. I can’t believe it is almost July! We have been canning for a month and a half already, but I just don’t feel like we’ve hit summer yet. So odd this year! 😉
Last year was a freezer jam year, which was great. But our freezer gets very full with our harvest, so I thought wed give this version another go. Looking forward to more jamming as this summer keeps hustling past.
~ Rachel
Testify! The strawberry jam was delicious, we enjoyed it all over the vast state of South Dakota! And thank you Pete for forgetting the other jar in our fridge.
~Anne
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it. So sorry to have missed you last weekend. xo Rachel
Can’t wait to try it. Every other recipe I’ve tried uses so much sugar I can’t tell there’s berries in it. Thanks!
We spent our weekend canning strawberry honey jam with Pamona too!! Rhubarb at our house is done, but the berries from the farm 2.5 miles up the road are FANTASTIC! I had to go back for another flat! Bless summer fruit!
Boo on sugar. Yay honey!
xo R
Love Pamona. I tend to horde it because the coop here runs out at peak berry season every year. Miss you!
~ Rachel
I made strawberry jam, but did it using a more standard recipe from my “Putting Up” cookbook. The amount of sugar needed was staggering – 14 cups for 4 quarts of berries! Yikes! I have Pamona’s on hand but am really worried about my jam not setting. I’ve got blueberries in the freezer from my most recent picking and will use some for pie and the rest for Blueberry-Rhubarb jam. I think I’ll be adventurous and try Pamona’s since you’ve provided a good outline. I’d feel better about eating my own jam knowing that each tablespoon wasn’t crammed with sugar 🙂
Susanne,
14 cups is mind boggling. Thats like eating jelled sugar, isnt it? The low sugar recipe set up beautifully! Really. Just a bit of honey and its thick as can be.
Trust.
~ Rachel
this sounds great, but i have to admit that i have no idea what calcium water is…i have the pamona’s and just-picked blackberries, but i’m in the dark about the water!! thanks!
Debra,
Its in the Pamonas box. There are two packets with instructions on how to use each. Good luck!
Rachel
I cant wait for our mulberry tree to fruit, mind you its winter here so Ill just have to enjoy looking at your yummy strawberry jam pictures. YUM!
MaeKellan, The thought of winter right now makes me so much more present in the summer were immersed in!
~ Rachel
Those strawberries are so lovely. The jam looks and sounds perfectly healthy too! I am a little afraid of sugar because diabetes is very prone in my family. It’s very nice that this jam is a low-sugar jam.
– Tera
Whoops, I lied! It’s 7 cups. I forgot I double the recipe. So 8 quarts of berries would require 14 cups. Still a lot of sugar, but not as bad as 14 cups to 4 quarts. I’m still going to try your version, though.
Tera,
Let me know how it turns out!
~ Rachel
Susanne, Thats better, but still so much! If you make some this method let me know how it turns out.
~ Rachel
Rachel Wolf
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LOVE that when I googled “Black Cap Jam Honey” your blog was the first result! Made my first jam ever yesterday using your recipe. SO YUMMY!!!!!! Thank you for posting it. Hope you are feeling better.
Yea, google! And so glad you are enjoying your jam!