This blog post features Jess' own recipe for Saskatoon Rhubarb Jam. As Jess' friends say "she measures with her heart" and produces a delicious jam featuring freshly picked saskatoon berries and garden rhubarb that her family enjoys year round.
My favourite berry to forage for on the Canadian prairies in summer is the Saskatoon berry, Amelanchier alnifolia, also known as the serviceberry to many in the USA. This berry is a native shrub in North America and is actually a member of the rose family. The berries, our purple drops of summer, are just sweet enough and very distinct in flavour. You can find our family near the end of July every year, with purple stained fingers filling our tummies with nature’s gift of saskatoons.
Not only do I make our popular Saskatoon Lemon Pie soap, but I also make jam every year and a saskatoon pie. I’ve come to realize my favourite way to use this berry is in jam, and mixed with rhubarb. The rhubarb gives a better texture to the jam and helps the berries go further helping us enjoy them year round. Let's give rhubarb the credit deserves- almost everything tastes better with some rhubarb added to it!
"I believe Saskatoon berries are iconic on the prairies."
Saskatoons are high in antioxidants, and loaded with vitamins and minerals. I love how we can have such an impressive superfood growing right out our back door in the wild. With the rising food prices- this is a berry that everyone on the prairies should know about, because they are abundant! You can find them in most naturalized areas, along the edges of aspen forests. And of course, they are popular at u-pick gardens. I also have a few cultivated varieties in our yard.
Saskatoon Rhubarb Jam
(This is Jess' recipe. I altered the amounts slightly and took inspiration from my grandma’s original Farm Women’s Union of Alberta cookbook from 1956.)Yield: 9 pint jars
Ingredients:Saskatoon Berries - 8 cups, fresh
Rhubarb- 2 cups, chopped (fresh from the garden)
Lemon Juice- ¼ cup
Sugar- 4 cups
I cook the above ingredients in a large pot, mashing and stirring often. Once liquidy, I use my immersion blender to give a few zaps to blend the chunks down- but I prefer to have a few berries for texture so I don’t blend completely.
Boil for 20 minutes and cook until thick, then after you perform the cold spoon test (see below), you’re ready to can. Please follow proper canning instructions. I pour into sterilized jars and seal while hot. I process my jam for 5 minutes after sealing.
Spoon Test: Place a few spoons in the freezer while you are making the jam. To test if your jam is done, place a bit of a jam onto one of your frozen spoons. Place the spoon back in the freezer for 3 to 4 minutes, then remove it and tilt the spoon vertically to see how quickly the jam runs. If it runs slowly, and if it has thickened to a jammy consistency, it is done. If it runs very quickly or appears watery, cook it for another few minutes, stirring, then test again as needed with remaining chilled spoons.
Enjoy your jam!!
