Wild Huckleberry Jam

Step 1

Place the washed and rinsed huckleberries in a pot with the sugar and about 2 tablespoons of water.  Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the berries are softened.  Mash the berries.

Step 2

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.Makes a little over a cup.

Step 3

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.