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8:34 am
Hi im new to all this jam making, last week we picked blackberries and got home and froze them straight away, ive taken them out for defrosting and there is alot of juice, i wanted to wash them to make sure there are no maggots but it will wash all the juice away. What should i do because i dont want maggot jam? thankyou
8:41 am
mandy475 said:
Hi im new to all this jam making, last week we picked blackberries and got home and froze them straight away, ive taken them out for defrosting and there is alot of juice, i wanted to wash them to make sure there are no maggots but it will wash all the juice away. What should i do because i dont want maggot jam? thankyou
hi again, do i have to use pectin? i am using preserving sugar and lemon juice aswell?
12:35 pm
Councillor
Thu 7-Jan-10
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Hi Mandy!
I don't know what to tell you about the frozen maggot issue. You could strain the juice to get out any wee beasties floating in it, then wash the berries. I must confess that I'm not overly finnicky about washing the fruit before starting to make jam.
What recipe are you using? the blackberry and apple one on here is brilliant and calls for straining the fruit through a sieve after boiling it, which would take out any lingering beastie bits. I've not had any problems with bits sneaking through.
And I've never bothered adding pectin, or even using preserving sugar rather than normal sugar, it's always worked fine for me.
Hope it works out for you!
Intolerance will not be tolerated.
3:43 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
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Hi from me too, Mandy.
Rae is spot on regarding not requiring pectin and just using ordinary sugar for blackberry jam. We do not like preserving sugar, to be honest, because we think the flavour is better with ordinary.
Regarding washing and "foreign bodies" you really have to pick over the fruit before freezing. We don't was blackberries either.
I think strain and reserve the juice. Pick through the mushy blackberries as best you can. Then pop them back in the juice, close your eyes, and away you go!
Good luck 
Never knowingly underfed
3:47 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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Hello and welcome Mandy!
I'll try that again!
6:26 pm
Expert
New members
Sun 17-Jan-10
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Hi Mandy and welcome to the Forum.
When I pick blackberries (in the next week or two since Norn Iron is a bit behind the mainland) I leave them in a shallow bowl for a while to give the grubs time to show themselves. I then pick off as much as I can, seperating the whole firm berries from the squashed ones. The firm berries get a light rinse and are left to dry on kitchen roll, the rest are used as they are.
6:54 pm
I agree; the firm berries are washed lightly and the rest picked through. You dont need pectin as the recipe on the site adds apple, which is full of the stuff. Have fun; I made 26 jars of the stuff yesterday!
10:05 pm
Supreme Being
Thu 24-Sep-09
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Hi Mandy and welcome. Like Shereen we in Scotland are later with our brambles ( as we call them. ) I actually found one ripe one today, but I didn't bother making jam with it!!! 
Old teachers never die, they just lose their class
7:24 pm
danast said:
LOL
2:28 pm
Enthusiast
New members
Wed 17-Feb-10
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Great comments, I have some blackberries and am thinking of using them for jam. Unfortunatley I didn't look down the topic list to see this topic was already being dicussed and created a new one. Sorry for that 
You make it sound quite easy so I'm going to give it a try 
4:27 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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No problem in creating a new thread Sarah. 
I'll try that again!
9:29 am
Councillor
Tue 22-Sep-09
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If you make jelly rather than jam you will strain all the maggots away with the pips-the maggots have only been eating blackberry so they are made from blackberry is what my great Grandma always used to say as she tipped the berries into the pan without washing them first!
Kateuk makes things at http://www.etsy.com/shop/finkstuff and sometimes she does this too http://www54paintings.blogspot.com/ and also this http://finkstuff.weebly.com/
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