June is over (how this year is speeding by!) and so it’s time to put another skill to bed in our Mastery Challenge. This month, we focused on jam making and more than 170 of you reported in that you’d made a batch of jam (and some of you made many, many more than a single batch).
Starring jam ingredients included apricot, bacon, berries of all shapes and sizes, black currants, cantaloupe, calamansi, carrots, cherries (both sweet and tart), figs, grapes, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, red onion, rhubarb, tomato, violets, and one lonely batch of watermelon rind jam. Strawberries were the very most popular ingredient this month, which makes sense since they are in season throughout much of the country during June.
One of the things I enjoy is seeing how deeply people are digging into each month’s challenge. Since jam making is a skill many existing preservers already know and use, I was hoping that it might lead to further exploration of unfamiliar styles of jam. I think both these graphics bear that out.
Up above, you can see that the majority of participants made more than one batch of jam. And judging from this second image, it looks like lots of people played with batch sizes and styles of preserving. I am entirely delighted.
Berries
- Raspberry Almond Jam (and more!) – BLDRNRPDX
- Lavender Vanilla Bean Strawberry Jam – Fillmore Container
- Classic Strawberry Jam – Thoughts and Reflections
- Honey Rum Strawberry Jam – Feast in Thyme
- Blueberry Jam with Crystallized Ginger – First Things First
- Spiced Blueberry and Cherry Jam – For the Love of Shrubs
- Strawberry Jam – Merry Meeting Menus
- Strawberry Rhubarb Cheater Jam – Hip Roof Barn
- Blueberry Maple Jam – Casula Mellita
- Strawberry Orange Blossom Jam – Bubble Tea for Dinner
- Strawberry Rhubarb Jam – My Savory Spoon
- Small Batch Strawberry Balsamic Jam – Love & Wild Honey
- Olallieberry Jam – East of Eden Cooking
- Strawberry Margarita Jam – Cooking with Mary and Friends
- Spicy Blackberry Merlot Jam – Cooking with Mary and Friends
- Strawberry Rhubarb Jam with Vanilla – Les Campagnonades
- Small Batch Strawberry Rhubarb Jam – mignyc
- Strawberry Vanilla Jam (and more) – Carol Olsen
- Strawberry Mango Jam (and so many more) – Genevieve Boehme
- Mixed Berry Jam – The Yellow Apron
- Wartime Strawberry Jam – Turnspit & Table
- Strawberry Vanilla Jam – Grace Lee
- Foraged Juneberry Jam – Celeste
- Strawberry Banana Jam – Candice
Stonefruit
- Apricot Jam – She’s Almost Always Hungry
- Apricot Anise Jam (plus several more!) – Jarla
- Georgia Peach Jam – Brit in the South
- Sour Cherry Jam – Heidi Graham
- Apricot with Cherry Pit Liquor – Lindsay Murray
- Sour Cherry Jam – Andrea Eat World
- Cherry Butter – kelkerr
- Cherry Mint Jam – Will Graves
- Sour Cherry Jam – Jeanne-Marie Hagan
- Apricot Cherry Jam – Kristyn
- Peach Jalapeno Jam – Susie Bares
- Apricot Jam – Katherine Dowdell
- Apricot Moscato Jam – The Pit Stop BBQ
- Sour Cherry Jam – Raya Samet
Other Jammy Goodness
- Mission Fig Jam with Orange Rind – Cookin Mum’s Culinary Adventures
- Sable Black Grape Jam – Cookin Mum’s Culinary Adventures
- Sunshine Jam – Cooking with Mary and Friends
- Cantaloupe Vanilla Jam – Tesla Anomaly
- Smoked Bacon Jam – Tandy Sinclair
- Lilac and Violet Jams – Sustainable ME
- Watermelon Rind Jam – My Bit of Earth
- Vanilla, Rhubarb, and Earl Grey Jam – Subcultural Farmgirl
- Red Onion Jam – Southern with a Twist
- Tomato Jam – Shades of Bliss
- Any Fruit Jam – Twice as Tasty
- Vanilla Rhubarb Jam with Earl Grey Jam – Erin Woycik
- Spicy, Smoky Skillet Tomato Jam – Jill Polsby
- Rhubarb Ginger Jam – Ikebana Girl
- Black Currant Jam with Cassis – Mauka Girl Creations
- Rhubarb Vanilla Jam – Jen Cooks VT
- Kiwi Pineapple Jam – Southern Fried Yankee
- Mango Pear Jam – Will Graves
- Black Currant Jam – Holly
- Pecan Amaretto Jam – Nikki Carriere
A giant thank you to everyone who participated this month! We’re focusing on hot pack preserving in July. Stay tuned for more details soon!
Making jam is such a pleasure. I am always excited to have found a way to capture the best of a season, and then savor, my work later in the year. Sharing all this goodness with others who enjoy homemade jam is nothing short of intoxicating! Thank you for bringing us all together to share our jamming experiences.
I love the way you posted the results! Fun to see what everyone made and to be able to click on the ones you want to make in the future to save the recipe? Thanks for all your work on this project. We are having a wonderful time under your tutelage!! Jill in Pasadena, CA