Blueberry Plum Jam: A Super Summer Flavor Combo
Early October is a time of year when my kitchen becomes my garden and orchard’s waiting room, where bags of fruit and flats of vegetables vie for counter space and my attention. Not that I’m complaining about an avalanche of farm fresh produce, it’s just such bounty waits for no one. The fruit flies and fungi are just waiting for me to make a false move. Decisions must be made and actions taken in a timely manner; do I eat it, can it, store it, freeze it or compost it?
Lucky for me plums and blueberries are a little more forgiving and tend to hold a week or two under refrigeration. That said, I finally got around to making a new flavor-combo jam: blueberry-plum. I grew the blueberries, and the Italian plums were a generous gift (along with peaches and nectarines) from the Washington State Fruit Commission. (They…complete…me.)
Betting on the plum’s creamy sweetness as a fine foil to the blueberry’s tartness, I embraced this fruity marriage (after ample sampling) as an essential jam in my canning repertoire. The recipe follows:
RECIPE: Blueberry – Plum Jam
Ingredients
- 2 pounds fresh Italian prune plums (about 4 cups chopped)
- 2 pounds fresh blueberries (about 6 cups)
- 3 cups of sugar
- 2 limes
Preparation
- Makes 7-8 pints
- Wash fruit, let air dry on cloth towel
- Cut plums in half, remove seed, then quarter each half
- Add chopped plums and whole blueberries into a preserving pan (large shallow stock pot)
- Add sugar and juice of two limes
- Stir to incorporate, let it stand at room temperature for an hour
- Heat slowly until a simmer (sugar burns easily, so keep an eye on it.)
- After simmering and stirring for 15 minutes, turn off heat.
- Let it cool, and simmer for another 15 minutes at your convenience
- Repeat this step until jam thickens, which may take two to three more times
- You can get a good idea if the jam is thickening when it cools.
- I like this method because it’s more about evaporation than cooking which creates a richer, fresher flavor I think.
- When a thick consistency is reached, reheat and place in jam in jars with 1/2 inch head space, seal and process for 10 minutes in a water bath.
New to canning? I recommend a visit the the Sweet Preservation site, sponsored by the Washington State Fruit Growers Association, where there are some great resources and tips on home canning.
Available counter space: an endangered species at my house this time of year.
Showing left to right: corn relish, roasted red pickle peppers, (top middle jar) Peach Melba jam, blueberry-plum jam, roasted red pepper relish, and sweet-sour cucumber pickles
Call me Mr. Canbassador: Related Posts and Recipes featuring Washington State fruit:
Tom – I love that combination of blueberries and plums. Plus lime juice? Great flavors!
Wowwie! That recipe looks amazing. Don’tcha just love coming up with new flavour combos? My fav we’ve made so far is cherries and boysenberries.
Whit, did you use sweet cherries or sour cherries?
Tom – do you grow blueberries as big as plums out there?
Brion, pretty close to it, oh alright, they are a little smaller, about the still size of seedless grapes, which is still pretty big I have you know. 😉
Love the combination and the way you let the fruit shine. No store bought pectin for you. I’d raid your jam cupboard any old day.
Darn – that’s rade not RAID
You must have the biggest smile on your face when you eye the jars in your pantry. I am amazed at the bounty of fruits and vegetables you harvest from your garden/orchard each year. I am envious!
My mother was always making jam when i was a kid and she would have loved a recipe like this, brings back great memorys of my mums homemade jams
Hi Phil, thanks for the visit and here’s to your Mother and her cherished memory. Take care, Tom
Hi Tom! I am also fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest, albeit towards the southern end, and have plums and blueberries in deep freeze stasis waiting to be transformed. I so want to make this jam, but I don’t have a scale and have no idea how to measure two pounds. Any chance you could break that down into cups for me?
Hi Zona, I just updated that info on the recipe post; I’d say 6 cups of blueberries = 2 pounds and 4 cups of chopped pitted plums = 2 pounds. Good luck and happy canning!
Tom that jam looks wonderful. On an unrelated note: I found out about the Chapin Bucket Irrigation Kit on Pinterest, and thought you might be interested… if you Google it… it might be an easier way to water your large garden… 🙂
Thanks Janet, I’ll take a gander, most appreciate.
My lemon tree is finally ripe so I am finally getting back to making your Lemon-Marmalade.Just wondering how long you simmered your mixture the next day.
Hi Rosemary, I’d say on low simmer, while stirring for 15-20 minutes. It should be gloppy and lumpy and thick, oh yes and delicious.
Much thanks Tom.I am excited to be making it.You have so many good things that you bake and preserve that I want to try.Wish that I could do them as fast as you seem too.
What a lovely home-made jam!
It looks freaking delicious & great to be enjoyed on some home-made bread! yummy!
I also love yur new blog lay-out: different & better, I say!
B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!!
I very much like that you do not have much sugar n your jam – 600g for about 1500 g of fruit. Using plums rounds out the flavor an help in thickening, I suppose?
This is the time to use frozen berries from the summer now… and actually make jam. No plum though :(. Italian plums are rare and precious here… an certainly not t have in November.
Yum! This is my next jam to make! I made plum pomegranate today. I also have a bunch of apricots. Any flavor combinations besides pineapple you suggest?
Wendy, how about plum and black cherry, or plum and blackberry? Check out my apricot jam recipe too, it’s my favorite: Alsation Apricot Jam.
This is my first year harvesting my plum tree and until I found this site I had no idea what to do with so many plums! I am making this yummy jam right now actually, and I am no jam expert, but it’s ok not to add pectin??
Hi Chelsey, you bet it’s okay not to add pectin, especially with plums, they contain high levels of pectin naturally.
Love making jam! Plum us a specialty if mine. I used 4 lbs plums, 24 oz frozen blueberries and a bit extra lime. My plums were sweet so I found this a little too sweet for my tastes. Wpill make again with less sugar.
Thanks for giving it a try Wendy and sharing your results. Less sugar is probably better in the long run. 😉
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Thanks from Virginia Danville that is great recipe taste wonderful so easy
Thanks for the kind response from the beautiful state of Virginia!