My neighbor, Erin, and I spied them first during our evening walk with her dogs on our old country road. It was literally covered with freshly fallen mulberries and their juices, dark red to purplish black. They fell from ancient, huge, mulberry trees. Well, we just had to pick up some to eat.

Sweet and a bit tart, mulberries are truly a seasonal spring time treat. 

Not usually found in groceries since they are incredibly fragile (and stain), mulberries are healthy berries to forage. 

We have 2 volunteer mulberry trees bordering the fence between our vegetable garden and asparagus patch.  Deer and our “girls”/chickens are recipients of most of the fruit but I’m hoping to harvest enough to mix in with some strawberries for jam. 

Mixed berry jam is fun and quick to make, and versatile. Just about any mix of berries work – wild, home grown or store bought. 

Just 4 ingredients for jam: berries, pectin, sugar and lemon juice.

The recipe I’m sharing is slightly adapted from Ball. 

It’s the technique that’s changed as far as preserving jams and jellies.

I’m old enough to remember sealing jars with paraffin! 

Today the recommendation is to process filled jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Temperature and time kills any mold, yeast or bacteria. It also creates a vacuum seal which pulls the lid shut tight so no contaminants get in during storage.

A little extra work, but certainly worth it. Especially if you’ll be gifting jars of jam!

Mixed berry jam

Ingredients

Equipment

Large pot with a rack: A dedicated water bath canner, or any deep stockpot fitted with a rack on the bottom to prevent the jars from touching the direct heat. The pan needs to large enough for jars to have an inch or so of water covering them as jam is processed.  If you don’t have a rack, try tieing jar rings together to fit bottom of pan.

6 glass canning jars (standard Mason jars), 8 oz each

Lids and bands: Use brand new flat lids for every batch to ensure a proper vacuum seal. Bands can be reused.

Jam

4 cups crushed berries – mix and match favorites and measure after crushing

4-1/2 tablespoons Ball classic pectin

2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

3 cups granulated sugar 

Instructions

Prepare boiling water canner. 

Place jars in canning rack and completely submerge them in the water. Bring water to a simmer, and let the jars sit in simmering water while making jelly. You won’t sterilize the jars, this warms them up enough so that they won’t break when adding hot jam.

Wash lids in warm soapy water and set bands aside.

Combine berries in an 8-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. 

Stir in lemon juice.

Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly.

Add all of the sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, one at a time, leaving a ¼ inch headspace. 

“Debubble”: run a knife around the inside edges to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Wipe rims with clean, wet cloth or paper towel. This removes any trace of jam. 

Center lids on jar and apply band, adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled. Water should come up 1” or so above jars.

Put lid on. Bring water back up to a boil and process jars for 10 minutes. 

Turn off heat, remove lid and let jars stand for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool. Remove jars and cool 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when center is pressed.

Tip: Crushing it

Some folks pour the fruit on a rimmed baking sheet and crush them with a potato masher.