Blueberry Preserves & Learning to Can

Preserves are a lovely treat. Toast! Waffles! PB&J! So many delightful treats bear the weight of fruity jams. I've wanted to try my hand at them for a while, but just never made the leap. Too much work, too intimidating, and maybe I've been a little distracted by the million and one other things I've had on my foodie wish list.

Canning is an art. But it's an a canvas I've been terrified to paint. I'd imagined this intense and complex process between sterilizing and actually sealing the jars, and thought I'd need a pressure cooker. After doing some research, I learned my perception was off. All you need is a big ol' pot of boiling water, something to pull the jars out of hot water with (I grabbed some jar tongs on Amazon), and a rack in the bottom of the pot to prevent the jars from touching the bottom. Canning isn't just interesting to figure out, it's a downright useful skill.

The preserves started with a fresh blueberries, honey, lemon juice, and cinnamon. I'm not big on unnecessary processed sugar, so I decided to use honey. I'm lucky enough to have a bee farm nearby, and always buy it by the jar. This made it easy to find the supplies I needed.

Step one on the jarring side of things was sterilizing the jars, boiling the jars and lids for 10 minutes.

I simmered the blueberries, honey, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a saucepan until it simmers, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for about 10 minutes until the mixture had sunk to about 30% of the original volume. The preserves looked like soupy blueberries, but that's normal - it firms up when the mixture cools. One thing to note, though, is not to scale back the honey (or sugar). Some versions use pectin to thicken, but blueberries have natural pectin, so with sugar and all of the natural blueberry greatness, you can still hit the jackpot.

I then scooped the final product into the sterilized jars and placed the lid on top.

I loosely placed the band on the jar, then placed it back into the boiling water. Ten more minutes, and sealed. The lid on one of the jars didn't seal completely, as evident by the lid not sinking in, so I dropped it in the water for a few more minutes.

Preserves! Spread on little bit of toast, this blueberry mixture became food of the gods.

Honey is one of my favorite versions of sugar and it worked out splendidly on this day. The preserves were thick, sweet, and perfectly shareable. This was a smaller recipe, so I only filled two jars, so next time the scale must go up.

Blueberry Preserves Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh blueberries

2 1/2 cups honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

Add blueberries, honey, lemon juice, and cinnamon to a large saucepan. Heat to a simmer, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the blueberries have turned into a sauce.