I went blueberry picking with my mom again this year and still have some berries to use up….about 6 quarts of frozen berries. When we went shopping the other weekend at Walmart they had the most beautiful nectarines…big and round and plump as your palm. Not those little walnut sized ones we get alot of the time. Their color was a deep red/orange with a deep yellow mixed with it. I got them home and decided they needed to go into a jar with the blueberries. All that was left was choosing a spice to flavor it with. Vanilla seemed kind of tame and I didn’t want a citrus, and I don’t have any lovely chillies….so I went with ginger. After all I have grated frozen cubes plus lovely candied bits from The Ginger People.
So I set about blanching, peeling and chopping the nectarines. And adding the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and grated ginger cubes. I cooked it down, added a pouch of liquid pectin following the recipe online from Certo Nectarine Jam. I then brought it back to a boil again and cooked to the gel point. Then I strained the solid chunks into jars, topped them off with the liquid and poured the rest of the liquid into the leftover jars. Which gave me a couple jars or preserves with big chunky pieces perfect for ice cream or yogurt and a couple jars of pretty jelly (with some blueberry seeds in it-those things are teeny). Normally I would mash the fruit more or cook it farther, but I was kind of tired and trying to get them canned before the move. So that I have my jars ready to ship next week.
Certo Nectarine Jam
yield=about 4 pints
4 1/2 cups prepared fruit
1/4 cup lemon juice
7 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp butter
1 pouch Certo liquid fruit pectin
Gingered Blueberry Nectarine Preserves
yield=about 3 1/2 pints
3 cup blueberries
3 cup chopped, pitted, peeled nectarines
6 cup sugar (4 white, 2 demerra)
8 tsp ginger grated (8 cubes Dorot)
1/2 cup lemon juice
2tblsp candied ginger minced (I use The Ginger People brand bits)
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin
Processing time: 10mins
The jelly didn’t set for almost 72 hours and is still a bit soft, but it should be superb after popped in the fridge. Its a nice warm gingery layer over the blueberry and nectarine. The color is a beautiful purpley tone with a warm red base. I’ll try to get some pics tomorrow in the sunlight. The indoor ones are grainy and icky.