Blueberry season is fast approaching!
The blueberry-picking season depends on the geographical location of your blueberries, but most blueberries are ripe in June and July.
I purchased my blueberries while on one of our trips to Michigan . Once home I froze them until I could make blueberry jam and syrup, add to muffins or mix up a batch of blueberry pancakes.
Besides Michigan
being a beautiful state, it is the leader in highbush blueberry
production. Michigan
farms produce approximately 220,000 tons (490,000,000 lbs) of blueberries,
accounting for 32% of all the blueberries eaten in the United States .
Picking blueberries and making jam always reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books “Blueberries For Sal” by Robert McCloskey. “
It’s about a little girl and her mother picking blueberries and running into bears. I did not run into any bears, but the farm where I purchased the blueberries told me they have a hard time keeping bears out of their blueberry fields!
Freezing Blueberries
Don't be afraid to pick or purchase more than you need because blueberries are one of the easiest fruits or berries to
freeze. Just wash and then dry the berries thoroughly, place them on a baking sheet in a single layer, and freeze (called flash freezing). Once frozen transfer to a plastic container with
a lid or in a freezer bag and store in the freezer. You’ll have fresh blueberries all winter long.
Blueberry
Information:
Botanists estimate that blueberries burst onto the scene more than 13,000 years ago!
Blueberries are native to North America
and are a perennial flowering plant.
Blueberries are in the same genus family as cranberries and
bilberries. ( I also love cranberries!) The blueberry starts out a
pale greenish color at first, then turn reddish-purple, and finally dark purple
when ripe.
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| I took this photo of blueberries while in the Smoky Mountains |
American Indians enjoyed blueberries by drying them in the
sun and adding them whole to soups, stews, and used them for medicinal purposes and even crushed them into
a powder to use on meat as a preservative.
American Indians called blueberries “star berries” because the blossom end of each berry – the calyx – forms a perfect five-pointed star. Tribal elders recounted how the Great Spirit sent “star berries” to ease the children’s hunger during a famine. And according to legend, American Indians gave blueberries to the pilgrims to help them make it through their first winter.
Health:
New studies seem to prove that blueberries can improve
memory, have lots of antioxidant nutrients and new studies show they can be
frozen without doing damage to their delicate anthocyanin antioxidants.
Blueberries have also shown benefits for eye health and to
have anti-cancer benefits.
Blueberries are high in Vitamin C, low in fat, are a good
source of dietary fiber and have just 80 calories per cup.
Blueberry Lemon Jam
This is a great tasting jam, the color is beautiful and the combination of the blueberry and lemon flavors together is amazing. (think lemon blueberry cheesecake!)
PRINT RECIPE
PRINT RECIPE
What You’ll Need:
5 cups crushed blueberries
5 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon zest (finely grated lemon rinds)
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 packages (3 oz) envelopes fruit pectin
7 half-pint glass canning jars and lids
How To Make:
Prepare boiling water bath canner.
Wash and sterilize canning jars. I place my jars in my canner to sterilize
them and to keep them hot until ready to use.
Place lids in simmering water until ready for use, but do
not boil.
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| Combine berries and sugar in a large sauce or stockpot |
Combine blueberries, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a
large saucepan.
Over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, bring the mixture to
a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Stir in pectin.
 |
| Stir in Pectin and boil for 1 minute |
Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and skim off foam if necessary. (You can add
1 teaspoon of butter if desired to reduce foam)
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| Fill jars and leave a 1/2 inch headspace |
Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Wipe
rim and apply 2 piece lids to the jar. Screw band on until fingertip-tight.
Process jars in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes.
Remove jars from canner and cool.
Makes about 7 (8 oz) half-pints.
Hints and Tips:
- If you do not have lemons or lemon zest on hand or want just plain blueberry jam, the lemon can be omitted and will not affect the recipe.
- If more lemon flavor is desired, increase lemon juice to ½ cup and lemon zest to 4 teaspoons.
- Give as gifts for Christmas, house warming, new neighbors, birthdays, or other special occasions.
- If you need extra jam, this recipe can be doubled.
- There are times when jam just does not set up. Not to worry, it makes wonderful syrup for pancakes!
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| Yum! |
Other Canning Recipes:
How long can this be stored? For instance can I give out at Xmas? Where do I store the jars?
ReplyDeleteI believe recommendations are one year for canned items, but I have keep mine for well over a year! I'm still using tomatoes from 2 years ago and they are as fresh as the day I canned them.
DeleteThis blog post could not be written any better for directions. Reading it reminds me of my college roommate! He continually kept talking about blueberry everything! I am going to send this post to him. Pretty sure it'll get his obsession going again!
ReplyDeleteWell I guess there are worst things to have an obsession about, haha
DeleteAnd I forgot to answer one other question! Store canned items, jars in a cool dark place. Even temps year round that are not too warm or cold and out of light or sunlight is best for long term storage. Hope that helps. I build a room in our basement with shelves for my canned food items.
ReplyDelete