Category: Canning

I feel giddy with excitement over our plans to can fruit spreads, sauces, and butters this summer. I’ve been gathering supplies:

Tattler reusable canning lids, food mill, stainless steel wide-mouth funnel, Pomona’s Universal Pectin, and dozens of pint-sized jars saved from last year’s applesauce canning adventure.

As well as taking out books from the library on preserving and putting up:

Including Put ’em Up!, Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency, and Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry.

Unfortunately I find myself completely out of luck with regard to recipes. Here’s the common thread I’ve found in all the canning books I’ve procured:

Sugar, sugar, and more sugar! Not small quanities of sugar either, but astounding cups (and cups!) of sugar added per batch.

That is simply not how we eat in our house. I want to make healthy fruit spreads for our family, not condiments chock-full of sugar!

So I’ve begun a quest for more natural fruit spread recipes with no added sugar and I need your help.

I’ve found a number of recipes using honey or maple syrup, others that are raw fruit sauces (like our favorite berry sauce from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook), yet few truly fruit-sweetened jams or jellies.

I know fruit-sweetened jams exist: I buy fruit spreads in quantity at our local grocery or Whole Foods, usually sweetened with apple or grape juice concentrate.

Why isn’t the internet teeming with these sorts of recipes?! I keep searching on Google and Pinterest without much luck. Am I missing something?!

Please tell me you have information to share, perhaps a family fruit spread recipe or favorite low-sugar canning resource or website? I have blackberries growing on our bushes and strawberries to can. Thank you for your help!