blackberry lavender pomelo

The Jam: Sweet blackberry paired with honey and lavender for a rich flavor.  We've added pomelo to temper it all with a tangy undertone.  It's already a staple in the Molineaux home, and has been a crowd favorite at parties. Goes great on toast, with cheese, and mixed into yogurt. This recipe is based heavily on Laena McCarthy’s wonderful recipe for blackberry jam in “Jam On”.

Makes about 4 4oz jars or 2 8oz jars

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds fresh blackberries

  • 2 TBSP lemon juice

  • 2 TBSP pomelo juice plus 1 TBSP pomelo zest (set aside)

  • 3 tsp calcium water (comes with Pectin)

  • 2 tsp dried lavender

  • 2 cups honey

  • 2 tsp pectin (Pomona’s Universal Pectin is best)

Making the Jam:

  • Place several spoons in the freezer ahead of time for testing jam consistency once hot. Prepare ingredients as listed above and set aside. Combine honey and pectin in a separate bowl, mixing with a fork or whisk to ensure pectin is completely mixed in with the sugar to avoid clumping.

  • Bring blackberries, lemon juice, pomelo juice, calcium water, and dried lavender to a boil for at least 3-5 minutes, or until you can appreciate a strong aroma of lavender. If at any point it starts to foam, skim foam off and discard it.

  • Add honey-pectin mixture slowly. Boil again for at least 1 minute. Drop about a 1/2 tsp of jam onto the frozen spoon to check if it is at desired consistency. If jam is still too runny, make a sugar-pectin mixture (1/2 tsp pectin in 1/4 cup of sugar) and add, boiling for another minute before testing again.

A Word on Canning: In order to safely keep this jam at room temperature, is necessary to follow proper canning protocol, including completely sterilizing the jars and lids, adding in contents when they are boiling hot, and reboiling the filled jars, keeping only those lids which have properly sealed. If you have not canned food before, please refer to further resources on proper technique! You can also make small batches of this jam, and store in the fridge for a few weeks, avoiding canning entirely.

If you decide to can this jam, fill still-hot freshly sanitized jars with boiling jam, wipe lip of jar with a damp cloth, secure lid, tighten rings finger-tight, and process in boiling water for 6 minutes. Properly canned jars whose lids compress on their own while cooling can be stored in a cool room for up to 1 year.