Unfortunately home preservation seems to be a dying art. I know very few women in my own age group that home can. I enjoy it, but even more importantly, preserving my own food means that I control what goes into the foods my family consumes. I know that when I spread jam on my son's toast all he is eating is raspberries, sugar, and pectin. No pesticides and no preservatives. Not only that, but I'm saving money on my grocery bill, which is important with only one income.
Before I show how I did it, I would like to say that if you wish to preserve food by canning you should follow a tested recipe and use the proper equipment. Poorly canned food can make you very ill.
The first step is to obtain berries. As I mentioned before, I picked my berries wild. Raspberries are quite easy to identify, but you should never pick and eat any wild fruit or berry that you cannot identify. Raspberries can also be purchased at farmer's markets, U-Pick operations, and your local grocery. Raspberries do not keep well so they can be quite expensive if purchased at the grocery store. Unless you are trying to avoid chemicals and additives it is my opinion that making jam from raspberries purchased at the store is not cost effective.
Here are the berries I used for this batch.
My container is nothing fancy, just a washed and dried ice cream bucket. Recycling at its finest.
I never wash my berries until I am ready to use them. I simply put the lid on the container and put them in the fridge. Berries are delicate and once you rinse them they degrade quickly. I have seen mold on berries that were washed and then put in the fridge in less than 24 hours. Oh, and don't worry about any insects lurking in the bucket. The cold of your fridge will stun them and make them all the easier to wash out when you are ready to use the berries.
The very first thing I do is to scour down all of my counters and make sure all kitchen surfaces are very clean. I keep my kitchen clean, but I feel it is very important to have an extra sanitary work area when canning so I always clean the counters again just before I begin. I then put my jars into the dishwasher to sanitize and heat. If your dishwasher has a plate warmer setting it is a great setting to use after the wash and dry cycle to keep your jars hot. If you do not have this setting just keep the door closed until you are ready for your jars. For those that do not have a dishwasher, you should wash and sanitize your jars by hand and then place them in a shallow pan with water in your oven at its lowest setting. I fill my canner half full with water and set it to simmering, and I fill a small pan with water and bring it to a boil. (for the canning lids.) Once the water in the small pan comes to a boil I pour the boiling water over top of the canning lids in a bowl or pan and let them sit until I am ready to seal the jars.
Next, I pour out a few berries into my sink colander. These are very inexpensive and make jobs like this very easy. A deep colander makes it harder to rinse the berries without crushing them. You want the berries to get clean without damaging them. I rinse with cold water and look for wayward bugs, and bad berries. I then put the clean berries in a bowl, and crush a few at a time (about a cup) with a potato masher. Jam is supposed to have chunks of fruit in it, so don't pulverize them to nothing. Measure out 5 cups of crushed berries.
In a separate bowl measure out 7 cups of sugar. You will also need 1 box of Sure Gel.
Pour the crushed berries in a large stockpot, stir in the box of sure gel and on high heat bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a full boil stir in the sugar and continue to stir until the mixture returns to a full rolling boil. This is when you begin timing. The mixture should boil (keep stirring) for one (1) full minute. Remove the pot from the heat and turn the burner off. Skim any foam off the top of the mixture. Immediately ladle into your hot canning jars. Fill to within 1/8 inch of the top of the jar. I still use a tool to measure the head space in my jars. I just don't trust myself to eye it properly. Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp cloth to ensure that no residue is left on them from pouring as it will interfere with the seal. Place the seals, then rings, on the jars and tighten down. Using a jar lifter, place your jars into the bottom of your canner that is 1/2 full of simmering water.
Make sure that the jars are covered with at least 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a gentle boil and place the lid on the canner. Process (boil) for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the lid, turn off the heat, remove the jars one at a time with a jar lifter, and place them on the counter on a dish towel. Do not disturb them until they are completely cool. I leave mine for 24 hours. After the jars are completely cool, check to make sure the jars sealed properly by pressing the tops. If they do not spring back the jar is sealed. If any of the jars did not seal simply put them in the fridge and use within 3 weeks.
I am sure there are other methods and other recipes out there, but this is the one I use and it works well for me. This recipe makes 9 jars of jam. The extra jars in the picture contain the leftover "syrup" from the bottom of the pan. After it cools I put it in the fridge and serve it on canning day over vanilla ice cream. Yum!