Oh yes, cheap raspberries!

We do love to visit Sydney Markets to get fresh produce, especially during berry season. Buying berries there means much cheaper prices than you’d see in shops. I’ve bought loads of strawberries and blueberries at cheap prices to make homemade berry jam. What I’ve never seen there are raspberries for sale. It’s a shame as raspberry jam is particularly delicious!

To buy raspberries I’ve always had to get them from fruit & vegetable stores or the supermarket – often at ridiculously high prices. Unfortunately it’s much cheaper to buy store bought raspberry jam than to make it myself. That changed a couple of weekends ago.

While grocery shopping, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable store that we don’t normally visit. We grabbed a watermelon there they had on special as well as various vegetables. At the checkout, I saw a stand there with punnets of raspberries for 99c each. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure I read it right, that a number hadn’t dropped off. Yes, only 99c per punnet. Needless to say I grabbed five of them!

At that price I suspected the berries weren’t 100% perfect. I was right. But each 125g punnet had maybe one or two berries that were starting to get a little mouldy. A quick sort of these then a wash ensured what I had were perfect. I had plans to use them that night.

After dinner once the kitchen was tidy, I whipped up a batch of raspberry jam. If I made this in our breadmaker (yes I have made many batches in here!) it would take about 1 hour. I didn’t want to spend that long. So on the stove top it was. Just 10 minutes was all that was needed to make this jam. Then all I had to do was pot it into sterilised jars. So quick!

Raspberry Jam

This delicious homemade old fashioned raspberry jam will have you emptying the jar in no time - seriously good! Made with just 3 ingredients in 10 minutes.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 15 minutes mins

Servings 800 jam

Ingredients

 

• 500 g raspberries, rinsed and dried
• 400 g white sugar
• 2.5 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

 

• Put the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice into a medium sized pot.
• Place the pot over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar crystals have dissolved. You can usually tell by running a wooden spoon over the bottom of the pan. While the sugar is dissolving, break up the raspberries with the spoon.
• Bring the pot to a rolling boil and time for 6 minutes.
  
• Take off the heat and place a few drops of jam onto a saucer and place in freezer for 2 minutes.
• Take saucer out of freezer and check if the jam is set by running your finger through it. If it forms a crinkle and is jelly-like then the jam is ready. If the jam isn’t ready, continue boiling for another 2 minutes at a time and re-test until ready (mine took 9 minutes).
• Use a small ladle to pot up the jam in sterilised jars and seal with lids immediately.
• Store in a cool dark place and refrigerate once opened.

Notes

To sterilise jars, first wash them in hot soapy water (or take straight from dishwasher), fill with boiling water, empty and then place in oven for 20 minutes at 140°C where you leave them until the jam is ready. Washed lids should be sterilised with boiling water and then left to drain.