Oregon Berry Season is here and I have turned into a jam making fool! I love to can and just can't seem to get enough of this... Be sure to check out our local farmers for u-pick and we-pick.
Zachary and I drove out to Greens Bridge Gardens to buy strawberries. I love so many from Hoods, to Bentons, but Firecrackers last. They definitely have a kick!
I was excited to try out my jam skills since I haven't made jam as an adult. I thought about it and couldn't bring myself to use Splenda in an effort to make Lee sugar free jam. It just doesn't sound right to take out sugar and replace it with chemicals. So, my friend Melina, who I now adore, introduced Agave Nectar to me.
I made the best strawberry jam:
I used about 1 pound of fresh strawberries and ½ a cup of agave nectar light.
(You can find it at Life Source for $3.59 a pound.) This was super scrumptious! It cooks about 25 minutes for the berries to fully break down.
My family has never "canned" their jam using the full hot water bath method. We just turned our jars over on a towel and they always sealed. So, this is what I did. Melina informed me I really should can them to be sure, so this batch ended up in the freezer. When I told my 90 year old grandma yesterday she laughed at me... said she never "canned" jam in hot water!
I had so much fun, Lee, Zachary and I went out to Fordyce and picked raspberries. For $31 a flat I decided I could pick berries! We picked 1 ½ flats and paid $13.
You guessed it. I had to make more jam. This time I tried the pink box of sugar free pectin and made a batch of SF raspberry jam and then a regular batch with the yellow box and real sugar.
I am still of the mindset that I hate cooking with Splenda. The SF batch with the pink box and Splenda didn't turn out at all and it has a sour bite to it. I'll have to mix it in with the regular and sneak it into my family that way. Or use it for ice cream topping!
It's fun to try different recipes and now I am getting my recipe cards organized so I know what works and what doesn't. My favorite is the Agave recipe above. It is clearly sugar and pectin free. If you have a favorite jam recipe that is sugar free please share it with me. I would love to find more healthy alternatives for my family.
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