Lavender’s Blue . . . (April Can Jam)

When the Can Jam ingredient was unveiled here I was both excited (because I have lots of herbs growing) and anxious (because I had no idea what to do with all those herbs). 

Food for Thought, a local company specializing in organic and local foods sells a variety of jams infused with herbs or blended with wines.  I’m a huge fan of the strawberry basil.  However, I don’t have any basil growing and I finished off all the unsweetened frozen strawberries in the freezer.   I do have lots of lavender so I decided to attempt a version of blueberry lavender jam.  I was out of blueberries so I had to buy local organic berries from Oryana, but I still managed to make a local jam.

I searched the Internet and found various recipes for blueberry lavender jams, but none were exactly what I wanted.  Most required pectin.  Some called for grape or apple juice concentrate.  I opted to make a long-cook, pectin free blueberry jam and add lavender.

First, get a tea infuser and fill it with freshly-picked lavender.

Convenient measuring cup

Screw the cap on the infuser and dangle it in the sauce pan.

The tea infuser makes a lovely "sachet".

Add the berries.

3 1/2ish cups blueberries

Add the sugar.

3 1/2 cups of sugar

Add two tablespoons of lemon juice and simmer until bubbly.

Let the lavender steep in the jam for about two hours.

Bring the jam back to a boil.  Check frequently to see if the jellying point has been met.  Once the jam has set, ladle into hot jars and process in a hot water bath for ten minutes.

Look! I got more than three jars!!!

I haven’t done a side by side comparison with Food For Thought’s jam, but it sure was tasty on a slice of sourdough from Bay Bread!

Yum.