Black Raspberries

The wild black raspberries are on.    They're a couple of weeks late this year, but the harvest looks like a good one.

Black raspberries ripen one a time per cluster.  It's rare to find more than that, so the daily pickings are slim and to get them all, you have to keep going back.   We pick twice a week or so until they're gone or until we have enough for jam. 

We pick first thing in the morning, when it's cool and the dew is all over everything.   It's wet work, fraught with thorns and spiderwebs, but the cat and the dog keep us company and we're often serenaded by one of our Yellow Breasted Chats.   We see the occasional green snake twined around a cane.   The daddy long legs love the berries as much as we do, but they often hide when we disturb the canes.  

When the berries are fully ripe, they pull off easily.   If one resists, then you know it's not ripe enough yet.  

We make just plain black raspberry jam with them and guard each jar jealously so we can make these Raspberry White Chocolate Bars during the holidays.    Worth every spiderweb and thorn!

Here's the link to Black Raspberry Jam - full sugar version with regular pectin.
Here's the link to the low sugar version of Black Raspberry Jam.  [My favorite!]

For more jam recipes as easy as these, check out my ebook on the sidebar.  A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin.  Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog.   Thank you!

Black Raspberry Jam - Low Sugar

We have a few patches of black raspberries on our place.   They like dappled shade and mostly hang out at the edges of the woods.   The berries are small and the canes are thorny.   It's hot, sticky, ticky work gathering them, but oh, so worth it.  With them we make one of the easiest jams ever.  Only four ingredients.  

This jam is the taste of hot summer days, bird song and country breezes.  


Black Raspberry Jam

• 4 cups black raspberries
• 2 cups water
• 4 Tablespoons Dutch Jell All Natural Lite Pectin
• 2 cups sugar

Mix the raspberries, water and pectin in a large pot.   Bring to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar.  Stir well and bring back to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Ladle into jars and process 10 minutes for canning.  Yield 2.5 pints.


Note:  We tried this jam with vanilla, but decided that the vanilla only detracted from the wonderful flavor of this fruit.  Leave the berries plain.


For more recipes as easy as this one, check out my ebook on the sidebar.  A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin.  Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog.   Thank you!