I had to take a break from working on the bedroom for a minute this morning (painting is done--trim next) to make a batch of raspberry jam. I bought a flat of berries at Costco so they needed to get done before they spoiled. Our own berries produced plenty this year and I could've easily gotten enough for a batch of jam in three days--but we just kept EATING THEM! They were soooo good.

I was amazed, however, at how quickly the jam went together. Start to finish it took less than an hour. And the clean-up was done while the jars were processing. (It helps a lot that I already have all the jars and lids and paraphernalia.)
It is really so easy to do--and I didn't use my canner even--just a medium soup pot.
I've made lots of jam before but don't remember it going so fast. Practice makes perfect I guess!

I make my own because, of course, I don't use sugar. This batch was sweetened with a combination of xylitol and splenda. (FYI anybody who's interested--xylitol works with pectin very much like sugar does so you get a nice gel, unlike the non nutritive sweeteners alone i.e. splenda, aspartame, saccharine.) I used about 3/4 cup xylitol and 30 drops of the liquid sucralose mentioned before--equivalent to about 2 cups of sugar--for 6 cups of jam.

I feel very accomplished.