Mulberry Jam :o)

The other day, my father-in-law calls up and says that they have a Mulberry tree that is loaded down with berries, would we like some? Ummm...sure! We don't turn down fresh produce of any kind. So I did a quick search for any type of mulberry recipes from my favorite food preservation site and decided to try some jam.

I did find when doing my search, that you have to be careful in the type of mulberries that you get, apparently some are poisonous. We determined that his were okay so we layed out a tarp and started shaking! The tree was loaded but not many fell :o( So we tried to pick some but most of the branches were too high. Needless to say, we didn't get many.

We came home and washed them and cooked them. I added a pound of strawberries to be able to make some jam. After washing and cooking them, I ran them through my foley food mill to get out the bigger seeds and stems (the stems on the mulberries are a pain to try to remove by hand!). I would up with 3 cups of cooked berries, so I added 3 1/2 cups of sugar (!) and 3/4 of a pack of pectin and cooked until it gelled. I put them in a water bath for about 10 minutes. I only got 3 of those little jars and then a little extra (for us to have a taste!) It turned out delicious! I think I overcooked it a little though because it didn't seem like it was getting to the gelling point and I kept it on but then it got harder to spread. Oh well. We can always make syrup with it. You just put it on the stove with a little butter and heat on low. Much cheaper than the fruit syrups at the store!

We'll go back next week to see if we can get more berries.