Blueberry and apple jam

Thanks to the blackbirds, we only have a small amount of blueberries to enjoy this year so I decided to make a small batch of blueberry and apple jam that could be kept for a special occasion. The recipe is quite simple and based on proportions: one part apples, one part blueberries and 1.25 parts sugar, plus a little lemon juice. In this case, that meant eight ounces of apples, eight ounces of blueberries, 10 ounces of sugar and two tablespoons of lemon juice.

The apple crop was poor this year with this basket being the entire crop from two of our three trees. Last year, we picked enough from all three trees to make 10 gallons of cider and still have apples left over. Still, there’s enough for jam and chutney making, plus a small amount of cider. As for the shortfall in cider, I’m going to make that up with mangel ale as the mangels have done very well this year.

But back to jam making. The apples were peeled, core and diced, then placed in a large pan with the washed blueberries. I added two tablespoons of water, then slowly heated the fruit until the apples had softened. The apples and blueberries were then mashed together.

The sugar and lemon juice were added to the fruit, and the mixture was then brought to a rolling boil. At this stage, a problem became apparent - our apples must be extremely high in pectin as the jam started to jell very, very quickly. I could probably have used one part apple to three parts blueberries - even though blueberries as very low in pectin and the apples had been peeled (peel has more pectin). Still, the jam tasted good so it was taken off the heat after just five minutes and poured into hot sterilised bottles. The sterilised lids were then screwed on.

We had just a jar and two-thirds of jam when we finished, but that still means the blueberries will go much further than if we’d eaten them as a dessert. It also means that we can have pancakes with blueberry jam for breakfast on Sunday. Well, we do have to use up that jar that’s only two-thirds full before it goes off…