It's a blueberry jam makin' kinda day.

Today, we did something I've been wanting to do forever. We made ourselves some proper jam out of the fresh blueberries I picked on Wednesday. 

In June 2004, we made jam with our neighbor (she led the reins on that project at the time). If it hadn't been for that experience I probably wouldn't have ever known that it's simple and easy to make your own jam! Jam-making was the primary reason I wanted to go pick mass quantities of blueberries. 

I got my mom in on this because I knew jam-making would a two-person gig. Over the past few days, we've read a few different articles on jam-making, the sterilization of the jars, and the proper sugar quantities to use. 

We were lucky, the only thing we needed to buy was pectin, since we had a bunch of jars leftover from our prior jam-making extravaganza (a decade ago). 

So here's a quick one-two on the old jam-brewing business!

The first thing we did was go to the store and buy the pectin. This is likely going to be found in the jars and canning section of your grocery store. I did not know such a section existed, and spent about 10 minutes staring at the Jell-O section before finally asking. Sure enough, there's a whole section in your grocery store dedicated to making your own preserves! If you need jars and/or lids, buy them here as well.

We ended up primarily referring to the recipe and instructions inside the box of pectin. These were the most helpful to us.

The first thing you've got to do is mash up your berries as well as you can! We used about two cups (mashed).

Next, pour those mashed berries in a pot on medium-high heat. Pour your pectin in immediately. This is what pectin looks like (iced coffee=optional).

Keep stirring until it begins to boil, and then immediately dump in your sugar. You will need 1 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of mashed berries that you have. So, since we had 2 cups mashed berries, we added 2 cups of sugar.

Allow to boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat immediately.

Your jars and lids should be ready and sterilized. (To sterilize, keep them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove with kitchen tongs.)

Carefully ladle your blueberry mixture into the sterilized jars. If you get some of the mixture on the edges or sides of the jars, wipe it up with a damp paper towel. The jars should be filled pretty much to the top with a smidgen of extra room (this will allow the lids to be sucked on, which allows the jam to be preserved).

Then, using tongs, place the jars in your big pot of boiling hot water (left over from when you sterilized the jars). Pour several cups of cold water over top of the jars. Turn the heat up and allow them to boil for 10 minutes.

Carefully remove your jars after 10 minutes. Now, as they cool, wait to see if the lid sucks onto the jar. It will likely make a vacuum-like sound. If you can no longer press down on the clicky top of the of the jar, then it has properly sucked on. This means you can keep the jam in the cupboard, rather than in the fridge, and it has a much longer shelf-life! Of course, once you open it, keep it refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.