A week or so ago, I went to visit a friend in the village. While talking about the idea of making blackberry jam, she suddenly said “oh, we should visit the mulberry trees!”. Quickly, she gathered a small container and two pair of gloves, and off we went to the mulberry trees just a couple of minutes away from her house.

I had never seen those two trees before, and I was immediately put under a spell. They were enormous and so majestic, their leaves moving with the breeze and holding the last mulberries of the season. I had never seen black mulberries before, so I was completely captivated by their colour and taste, as well as the colour of their juices, red as blood. My hands were soon covered in this vivid red liquid. My friend offered me gloves, but I kindly said I was ok with it. Being covered in that red somehow made me feel so… alive. We harvested a good amount and with it I made this jam recipe!

Watch the recipe video here:

Black Mulberry Jam Recipe

This recipe was adapted from the blackberry jam recipe by Practical Self Reliance.

Ingredients

• 2 and 2/3 cups of mulberries
• 1/3 cup of raw honey
• 2 tbsp of fresh orange juice

Recipe

• Measure how many mulberries you have with your cup. If more than 3 cups, adjust this recipe to match what you need. Make sure to work with small batches, so that it’s not too difficult to reach gel stage;
• Place the berries in a pot with a few centimetres of head space to allow for some foaming;
• Add the raw honey and the orange juice;
• Mix everything well and start mashing the blackberries with your wooden spoon to release some of the juices;
• In low heat, simmer the berries and keep mixing regularly;
• Eventually you will notice that it is reaching gel stage as there’s less water in the pot and the mixture has thicken. I usually can tell when it is ready kind of instinctively, however, just recently found out about a cool trick to help me be sure. Basically you put a bit of hot jam on a plate and place it in the freezer for about 5 minutes (or until the base of the plate doesn’t feel warm anymore). Then, remove the plate out of the freezer and turn it vertically. If the jam moves very slowly or doesn’t move at all, then the jam has reached gel stage! (see an example photo here);
• Make sure to sterilize your glass containers and lids with hot water;
• Put the jam into the containers with a sterilized spoon, close them with the lid and let them sit until they are not warm anymore;
• Keep them in the fridge to conserve them. Alternatively, you can also process them in a water bath canner for 5 minutes.

And there you go! Super easy and delicious!

I truly hope you have enjoyed this recipe!

If so, make sure to also check out my previous post on Homemade Blackberry Jam (no sugar | no pectin).

Thank you for reading ♥️