Blueberry Season

It’s blueberry season here in New England, and whether you pick your own as I do, or pick them up at local farm stands or super markets, it’s a shame to let the season slide by without making full use of this delicious treat.

I normally load up every year at one of the “U-Pick-Em” places not far from here, picking somewhere between 25-30 lbs., converting part of the haul into jam and freezing most of the rest for use throughout the year.

Most people wash the berries prior to freezing, but I prefer picking out stems, leaves, and what have you, measure them two cups per bag into 1-quart freezer bags, and stack them flat in the freezer. The beauty of doing it this way is that they don’t clump together, making it easy to just open a bag and take what you want instead of thawing the whole thing.

When I’m ready to use them I dump them into a medium size bowl, cover them with warm water, and swish and pick out any stuff I missed earlier as it floats to the top. Most recipes say you can use the berries still frozen, but I find it increases the cooking time quite a lot, making timing kind of iffy.

As far as making jam, just follow …precisely… the recipe included in the pectin box. I always use Sure-Jell with good results except once when I added the pectin too soon and had a very nice syrup instead of jam. If you prefer to use less sugar my daughter Kathy recently tried a low sugar Sugar-Jell and liked it.

Making jam is kind of labor intensive, but not complex. I think it’s well worth the effort and makes nice gifts, too.