Plum, Blackberry, and Vanilla Jam

Plum Blackberry and Vanilla Jam

Plum_Blackberry_Vanilla_Jam

There is an abundance of free fruit at our house this year! We have friends who bought a farm down the road that is full of blackberry bushes that I have been picking weekly and I am house sitting for friends who have 5 apple trees and 3 plum trees. I almost have more fruit than I can handle!

Blackberry_picking_on_Snell_Farm

Needless to say, it was time to break out my jars and start canning. I’ve done some simple blackberry jams, even tried a blackberry vanilla bourbon jam, but nothing has come close to this Plum, Blackberry and Vanilla Jam that I’ve created!

The best part- it works with any kind of plums! Whatever you can find: regular plums, yellow plums (I used both big ones and tiny ones), and prune plums.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups cut up Plums (about 20 medium sized)
  • 2 cups smashed Blackberries
  • 1 box of Sure-Jell Pectin
  • 8 cups of Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • ½-1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Prune_Plums

Pit and cut up plums, leaving skin on (it dissolves in the cooking process). I personally like chunks of fruit in my jam, so I cut them on the larger size, if you are not a fan of chunks, cut them smaller.

Rinse, crush (using a potato masher) and measure blackberries.

Pour all fruit into a large pot on high heat. (I usually do one last mashing with the potato masher). Stir it all together and slowly add in the box of pectin.

Plum_Blackberry_Jam

Bring the fruit to a rolling boil (meaning when you stir it, the boiling doesn’t stop- if you’re not sure if you’re at a rolling boil, you probably aren’t there yet). Add all 8 cups of sugar and stir it in well. Add lemon juice and vanilla (these are both “to taste”. I like the lemon juice to balance all the sweet and I like to taste the vanilla so I use closer to a full tablespoon).

Lastly, add the tablespoon of butter. This should help keep the jam from foaming while it boils.

Plum_Blackberry_Jam_Boil

Bring the pot to a rolling boil once again. Once it reaches the full boil, boil it stirring occasionally for 1 minute. Then remove from heat and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.

While the jam is coming to a full boil, I put my lids in boiling water and pull my jars out of the canner so they are hot and ready to go when the jam is ready. Wipe down the rims of the jar and place the metal lids on carefully (try not to touch the metal to avoid germs). Screw on the rims to finger tight and place in the canner with at least an inch of water on top of them to process for 10 minutes (do not start the timer until the water is boiling). Pull jars out of the canner using canning tongs and place on a towel on the counter. Be careful not to touch to tops of the jars. Leave for about 12 hours to cool. You should hear a “popping” noise as the jars seal. If after cooled, the jar lid still pops up and down in the middle, you can re-process it in the canner or place in fridge and eat in the next week or two.

This recipe makes roughly 5 Pint Jars but can be put into smaller jars if you’d like as well.

Prune_Plum_Blackberry_Jam

 

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