I made my first homemade jam yesterday!

My mother took the kids and I to pick blueberries and raspberries, and she surprised me with a box of jelly jars. (I already had a box of pectin that she bought me earlier this summer when I had mentioned that I wanted to make jam sometime.)

In the afternoon, the kids and I made black raspberry jam. It came out great.

I was a little worried because I don’t have a canner, so I had to use the inversion method and I wasn’t sure if it would work. I did get a seal on the jars, though, so it seems fine to me.

The USDA advises against using the inversion method because it can lead to mold growth or spoilage, due to a weaker seal, but I doubt we will have it around for that long.

We had a little left over, so I put it into the fridge in a jar and had it last night on some vanilla ice cream. Yum!

We were able to get 7 full jars, but I plan to give some of them to my mother as a thank you for buying me the supplies.

Now I need to buy a boiling water canner, so I can put up some more jams and some of the tomatoes from my garden, when they come in.

Little E was pretty proud of making our own jam. He loves PB&J sandwiches. When he came out this morning and saw the jars he said, with excitement, “Remember that we picked berries and make our own jelly yesterday?”