Wild Huckleberry Jam

It’s huckleberry season!

We enjoyed red huckleberries a few weeks ago and now the black huckleberries are ripening.  Huckleberries are found in the wild throughout North America.  Europe has very similar berries that go by a variety of names such as bilberries, whortleberries, wimberries and fraughans.  They all share a lot in common with the blueberry and have a similar taste but slightly more tart and sometimes with larger seeds.

Huckleberries are terrific in drinks, jams, candies, pies, muffins, pancakes, teas, syrups and more.

Today we’re making huckleberry jam!

Picking huckleberries is pretty tedious work and it takes a while to gather a good amount because they’re so small.  Fortunately for huckleberry jam you don’t need a lot of them if you’re just making a small batch.  This recipe calls for just a cup of them but if you have some extra pairs of hands to help you pick, feel free to double or triple the recipe!

However many you choose to pick, once you’ve tasted this jam I’m sure you’ll agree that your berry-picking efforts paid off!

Let’s get started!

Place the washed and rinsed huckleberries in a pot with an equal amount of sugar (1 cup per 1 cup of berries).  Add a little water (approx 2 tablespoons per cup of hucklberries).  Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the berries are softened.

Mash the berries.

At this point you can go two different routes for thickening the jam:  Use pectin or slow simmer the jam after adding about 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice per cup of huckleberries.

For the pectin route:  Stir about 2 teaspoons of powdered pectin into the boiling jam and boil for another minute.  Remove from heat and let cool until set.

For the non-pectin route:  Stir in about 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice for every cup of huckleberries and simmer the jam over low heat for about an hour or until an instant read thermometer shows 220 degrees F.  For canning follow the same instructions as with the pectin route.

Note:  If you’re making jam with less than 2 cups of huckleberries, I find it’s usually best to go the pectin route to thicken it because smaller quantities are more susceptible to burning.

Canning:  If you’d like to can this for long-term storage make sure the jars are sterilized and the lids are washed, screw on the rims, ladle the hot jam into the hot jars and process them in a water bath for 5 minutes then carefully remove and let sit undisturbed for 24 hours before removing the rings and storing.

Enjoy!