Blueberry & Raspberry Preserves

{Wild} Blueberry Preserves

6 cups blueberries
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

In a large pot crush 3 cups of berries, then add remaining berries, sugar, and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 15 to 20 minutes--or until gel point is reached.  Add a pad of butter or skim off foam.  Ladle preserves into jars and process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

Raspberry Preserves

About 8 cups whole red raspberries
About 7 cups white sugar
1/3  to 1/2 cup lemon juice

Stir in all ingredients in a large pot over medium heat and then stir slowly and occasionally waiting for signs of boiling. Once boiling stir slowly and constantly for 5 minutes.  Add a tsp of butter at this time—or don’t and skim foam off jam before canning.  Remove from heat after 5 minutes.  Ladle into jars and put in a hot water bath for 15 min. 

The berries have been collecting around here as they get picked little by little.  It was high time to make some preserves!  Before making a few batches my sister and I did go out to collect a few more blueberries.  There are plenty still out there and we saw evidence that bear have begun to appreciate them, so it's probably a good thing are picking is done for the season.

Back at the cabin we laid out our berries and finalized our recipe choices.  I went with a pectin free blueberry where my sister didn't.  It will be interesting to see how they compare to one another.  The pectin preserves did allow for a few more jars in the end and used less berries, but mine taste pretty good.  After comparing flavor I'll decided what I'll do next season.

We both stuck with our standard recipe for our raspberry preserves.  Raspberry is my favorite and I'm thrilled with how much I have to enjoy plus give away.

We enjoyed conversation, listening to some concert archives from two musicians we both enjoy, and analyzing the results of our projects.  By the time we were done, the kitchen was hot, vaporized fruit clung to my skin, and we couldn't have been more happy with how we passed the day.

Blueberries are pretty much the end of the berry season, although there are some other berries such as pin and choke that I don't enjoy as much hanging around.  I will be going out and getting a few more Juneberries to make a very small batch of syrup for ice cream since there are a lot of these right out the cabin door.  Right now I'm very happy with our small stash of summer goodness!