Easy Jam Recipe

This easy jam recipe uses berries, granulated sugar and a lemon. That’s it. No pectin, no fancy ingredients and cooks in less than 20 minutes. Plus it literally works with any berry. We made it with hand-picked wild dewberries but 5 cups of any berry from the you-pick farm, your garden patch or a bulk CSA order will work to make beautiful, flawless jam!

Easy Berry Jam Recipe

Where I Found the Recipe

I didn’t invent this recipe. It comes from this website and is the recipe I chose to use for my very first time making jam. But we used 5 cups of berries to make a small batch (about 1.5 pints of jam when done). The original site has lots of pictures to walk you through the steps but I want to record the half-batch recipe we used here so I can find it again:

Any Berry Jam

5 cups fresh picked berries, rinsed twice and drained

2.5 cups white granulated sugar

zest of ½ lemon

juice from ½ lemon

Combine all the ingredients in a 10 inch wide, non-reactive pot (we used enameled cast iron) and heat on medium-high, stirring with a silicone spatula until berries warm and release their juice. Use a potato masher to mash the berries. Increase the heat slightly and bring to a boil, skimming the foam from the top with a dinner spoon. Discard the bitter foam or give to chickens. Let boil for 10 minutes total then remove from heat. Ladle into clean glass jars of any size (half pint, jelly jars, etc.) and let sit on the counter to cool for 30 minutes. Cover with lid and let cool overnight. Some jars may self-seal. Refrigerate and use within 2 months or freeze for up to 6 months.

Total time from start to finish: about 20 minutes.

Wild dewberry jam recipe — Wild Dewberry Jam made from berries hand-picked by my son. Visit my Etsy shop to purchase the stamp shown.

How it Tastes

The jam is sun-ripened sweet and has a delicious, summer-berry taste that you simply cannot get from the grocery store any more. I know this because I have tried! I’ve bought organic jams made with only cane sugar and limited ingredients for years and it still does not compare to the juicy sweet dewberry jam we spread on our toast this morning.

Support Local You-Pick Farms

As my son and I licked the cooking spoons clean while waiting for the jars of jam to cool, I wondered why I was spending so much on organic jam when I could just make my own? We happen to be surrounded by organic You-Pick berry farms so why had I always thought jam making to be intimidating? (I think it is the boxes and jars of pectin and Sure-Jell on the canning aisle that made me believe it was somehow tricky or difficult.) The truth is it is ridiculously easy! The strawberry farms are probably going to know me by name now.

This image comes from our local Atkinson Berry Farm’s Facebook page. Click the image to visit Facebook to view their You-Pick offerings.

Gift Giving

I love cutely packaged little gifts. Once I discovered I could design my own custom stamps, they took my farmhouse offerings to a whole new level. If you like the stamp design on the tag above, jump over to my Etsy shop to purchase it or something else darling just for you!

I hope this easy jam recipe finds a way into your kitchen this summer and brings with it fond memories of berry picking and jam making with your children.