Oregon is full of berries in the summer. You can find them growing wild on pretty much every hike you go on throughout the state this time of the year. One great way to make berries last well into the colder months is to turn them into jam and preserving them at their freshest insures the best possible product.
Not being known for my patience I decided to go to the Lane County Farmer’s Market in downtown Eugene to get berries for my jam instead of trying to pick enough of them on my own. I got three pints of beautiful marionberries, a breed of blackberries native to Oregon.
Although I used blackberries for this recipe, you can opt to use any berry you want while keeping everything else the same!
Berry Jam
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh berries
2 cups granulated white sugar
½ oz package of pectin
Mason jars with lids
Instructions:
Place a large, tall pot on the stove and fill ⅔ of the way full of water and turn up to high heat.
While water is still cold, place open mason jars into the water and bring up to a boil
In a separate pot on medium heat add berries and smash with a steel wire masher and add pectin
When the berries and their juices come up to a simmer, slowly begin whisking in the sugar
Once all the sugar is incorporated, bring it up to a high simmer and allow to cook for one minute.
Remove jam from the heat and pull out glass jars from water with a pair of tongs.
Carefully pour hot jam into hot glass jars. Use a funnel to make your life easier.
Screw on lid tightly and return jars into the boiling water carefully so you don’t get splashed with boiling water.
Keep jars in boiling water for ten minutes
Remove and allow them to cool to room temperature overnight on their own
Rosemary Butter
Ingredients:
¼ pound salted butter
2 TBSP chopped fresh rosemary
Instructions:
Allow butter to come up to room temperature to soften
Mix in freshly chopped rosemary
Biscuits
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup lard (can substitute shortening to make vegetarian)
¾ cup whole milk
2 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp kosher salt
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 450ºF
In a mixing bowl, cut lard (or shortening) into flour, baking powder, and salt with a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Slowly add milk little by little until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and can be rounded into a ball. (NB: Too much milk makes dough sticky, not enough makes biscuits dry)
Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and kneed lightly ten times.
Roll out to ½-inch thick and cut with a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter.
Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 1 inch apart for crusty sides or touching for soft sides.
