Every summer for the past few years, I've made a preserve. Two years ago, I made dill pickles (which were fantastic). Last year, it was raspberry jam and spicy dilled beans. This year, I made some blueberry lime jam -- my favourite preserve so far.
I bought the blueberries at a little fruit stand in Niagara when my fella and I took a little road trip one Saturday. The blueberries were huge, sweet, and perfectly ripe.
The recipe is very simple -- lots of blueberries, sugar, pectin, and the zest and juice of three limes. It's amazing how well the sweet blueberries and tangy lime go together.
The rest of the process is very straightforward -- boil the ingredients, pour into jars, and seal.
Canning really used to freak me out because it seemed so complicated. I always felt worried that I wasn't going to sterilize the jars properly and end up giving someone botulism. But, while canning might be a fairly involved process, it's really not difficult. Within a couple hours, you'll have a delicious reminder of summer that will last you all year.
The full recipe I used and a canning how-to can be found on the Bernardin website. (Sidenote: how funny is it that Bernardin's motto is "Because you can"?? Gotta love those canning puns!). Also, here are a whole bunch of canning recipes for you to try. I'm thinking I'd like to tackle a chutney before the summer's over.
I really want to try and make jam! I want to go to the strawberry farm and pick my own strawberries then come home and make jam. I just need to figure out where to get some jars from on the gold coast. Once that search is over the jam making can begin!
ReplyDeleteWhen summer rolls around in Canada, you can find jars and pectin in most supermarkets. Randomly, I've also seen then in hardware stores. Good luck with the jar search!
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