Homemade Blackberry Jam

          I just made my first Blackberry jam. I started it yesterday and just finished it this morning. My son brought me in a small amount of berries, longing for jelly made from these precious jewels. So how could i resist. I believe the recipe came from the book " Blue Ribbon Preserves". I checked it out of the library and took some extensive notes on things I wanted to try. I only had enough berries to make 2 half pint jelly jars, so had to convert the recipe. So I whipped up 2 jars of Simple Grape Jelly from some Grape juice I had. I hated to run the water bath for just 2 jars,lol.

                                                                   Blackberry Jelly
To make blackberry juice:
3 quarts berries
1/2 cup water
jelly ingredients:
5 cups juice
7 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 (3 oz) pouches liquid pectin

To extract juice, gently rinse berries in cool water in colander and drain. Put berries in 8 qt pot, Combine berries and water over medium low heat. bring to 180 degrees, and heat 5 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!
recipe called for placing berries in a fine meshed sieve. i didnt have one, so i lined my colander with coffee filters and placed this over a bowl. I then poured the berries into this and covered the top with some saran wrap and placed in the fridge to strain over night. You are supposed to do this slow gentle drain, rather than squeezing them. it stated forcing the juice thro would make a cloudy jelly.
      The next day discard the pulp and seeds left in the sieve or colander.This amount of berries is supposed to make approx 5 cups of juice.To make jelly, Place berry juice into 8 qt pot and heat till warm. Add sugar and heat. Stir continuously till sugar dissolved. Increase to medium high heat and bring to a full rolling boil.. Stir in pectin. Return to a full rolling boil. Stir constantly for 1 minute. remove from heat, Quickly skim foam, and ladle into sterilized jars. Clean rims, and apply hot lids and rings. Hand tighten.  Process in boiling water bath with water covering tops of jars for 10 min. I used 15 for my altitude.