In general I use paper towel when cheesecloth isn't fine enough, but that would give all juice and no pulp, which makes jelly rather than jam. If you want to be sure about the seeds, people here seem to like the Villaware food strainer or the Kitchenaid fruit/veg grinder attachment for stand mixers (read amazon.com reviews, because the Kitchenaid attachment might choke on berry seeds).

Since you didn't measure the sugar, the raspberries aren't ideal for jam, but I bet you could get by. Find a recipe that allows some variation in sugar--maybe low-sugar pectin or Pomona's? If you rinsed them in cold water while still frozen, could you get off most of the sugar? I always melt freezer burn off store-bought frozen berries before adding to oatmeal.

I think the idea of rhubarb is gross so I've never eaten it & can't help you. Pink celery that goes in fruit pies? Sorry Melissa. :-)

Melissa

Yea, the ruhbarb doesn't turn me on either. But I figured if it added a bit of tartness to strawberry pie, maybe it would be good. But I got the impression with the recipe that I saw, it was more a case of adding a bit of fruit to rhubarb than the other way around.

Melissa (the newbie)

Melissas, you ought to try rhubarb before you judge. I think it's heavenly, whether stewed, in jam (with lemon is my fave), in pie with or without strawberries or peaches...

Rhubarb is delicious! I think it will go perfectly well with the raspberries in a jam, or in other desserts such as a cobbler. I like stewed rhubarb served as a sauce with pork or ham, and I reckon a few raspberries tossed in would be great, too, when used this way.

Here is a link that might be useful: raspberry rhubarb jam

Another rhubarb fan here.....I love it in crisp....also rhubarb bread (sweet & tart all in one - yum). Raspberry rhubabrb compote sounds good.

Poor rhubarb, that much maligned gastronomic delight. It must be the Rodney Dangerfield of the vegetable world because so often it "don't get no respect."

We love rhubarb. Properly prepared it is sublime. In a part of the world where we can find wonderful specimens of berries, peaches, plums, etc. rhubarb is our favorite pie.

I will happily sing a paean to rhubarb any time.

Carol

It appears I have begun a Ruhbarb Rally! LOL

I guess you will need to use a recipe without any added commercial pectin since you already put in sugar. That or use a low sugar pectin and see how it turns out. With regular pectin your measurements on sugar is critical to get a good gel.

I think the best thing for straining out the seeds is an old flour sack towel if you don't have some sort of strainer if you want no seeds.

It sounds like I should use the frozen ones for jelly. We have a fall harvest ripening now, and I will try making the jam from the fresh berries.

If I can get that much right this year, I will be happy!

Oh, yes, rhubarb is wonderful. I hope SuzyQ will post her rhubarb bread recipe. Plus a few plants produce lots, with essentially no care and grow forever. And along with all the very good ideas above, warm rhubarb sauce with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is just a little bit of heaven. Or a childhood delight, fresh out of the garden dipped in sugar.

But no one has really answered your question. I think it's really too late for you to harvest fresh rhubarb. It's usually tough and stringy this time of year, and getting ready to go to sleep for the year. Next year pick early and freeze (chopped in a ziplock is fine) until your raspberries are ready.

Petro

Not here in Oregon. Lovingly tended it's good for about a month yet.

However, on the raspberry front, the benefit of freezing is you get much more juice. Maybe raspberry jelly will best meet your needs given the equipment available. The color is lovely and the flavor is wonderful. There is more waste, but you can take the pulp remaining and make raspberry vinegar.

Carol

Ah yes, still harvesting Rhubarb here in Oregon!!
I am not quite as crazy about it as some previous posts, but I have one plant. I like to add to berry jams to add a bit of tartness. Sometimes they just seem too sweet (yes, that's because I use commercial pectin and lots of sugar).

Rhubarb can also be mixed with zucchini or other fruits in breads, pies, etc.
Mine is happy as a clam in it's half-barrel planter!
Deanna (up to my eyeballs in tomatoes.....)

Carol here, also up to her eyeballs. I'm never satisfied. First I whine there's no tomatoes; soon I'll be complaining there's too many.

The variety of rhubarb makes a tremendous difference. Ours is an old one called "Ruby Red." It's very tender and sweet.

Carol

ok rhubarb lovers, you got my attention! (I even learned how to spell it...)

I saw a recipe that caught my eye, it consisted of Rhubarb, Appricot and crushed pineapple!

sounds tempting, but will have to wait till spring for the fresh rhubarb.

I did it, made my first batch of raspberry jelly. Not sure how it turned out.

When I first took them out of the boiling water I heard some pops that I fear means the seals didn't take? Or is this normal when they first hit air?

The lids seem steady, not going up and down, but its only been a few minutes.

The "pop" you heard was the lid sealing and the center "poping" down. Sould have sounded like a metalic "ping" or "tink". This is caused by the vacuum forming in the jar, just as it's supposed to.

thank you Smokey! I am thrilled about that part now.

When I tip a jar, it moves like I have a thick syrup in there, not jelly. Is this because its still hot?

I am happy about the cheese cloth. I used a few layers and didn't get one seed! When I first saw it, I thought, no way is this going to work...

Congratulations on your success!

But try not to tip the jars for 12-24 hours. (I know it's tempting.) You risk breaking that beautiful seal the "Pops" indicated.

Jellies and jams can take a while to set, sometimes as much as three weeks, so however thick it is when cool, it may be even thicker over time.

If you're making a no-commercial-pectin jam or jelly, you can stop the process when you've reached what you think is the optimal point and refrigerate. When it's cold you'll see exactly how thick it's going to be. Then, if you like, you can reheat and seal or if necessary you can cook it some more before jarring up.

Carol

If you are freezing the raspberries, you shouldn't wash them first. Best to wash berries only right before using them, if at all. Mine are organic so I just pick out stray stems and things and freeze them, I don't wash them at all. Just adds water to the future jam or cobbler or what have you. I also wanted to say I snorted a little at your picking "over a quart a day at one point." That for me would be a day with very little berry picking. I have about 20 gallons of black raspberries in my freezer, waiting for time to make jam.

Marcia (also a rhubarb lover)

Thank you Smokey, Lady, and LedZep

This morning the jelly is much firmer, when I turn the jars, its still syrupy, but the center seems to have jelled. So am crossing my fingers...

How does too much sugar affect this?

I will take your advice and freeze berries without cleaning them first. When I thawed them, there was plenty of juice already from what I had done. I was tempted to short the sugar in the recipe because I already had some there, but chickened out - should I have done that?

Zep - sounds like you have a lot of work in front of you! There is just my husband and I, so we give a lot away, but still end up with more than we use. Even canning I can see will yeild more than we will use. So hopefully I will have this mastered enough to give them away at Christmas...

Smokey, that "ping" is exactly what I heard - I knew on the first one it was the lids making the noise.

Reading Lady! I read your email with distress because I had already tipped over 3 out of 5 jars - but luck was with me, this morning they are still all sealed.

thank you all for helping me through this!

You can always look at it this way - if you tip a jar and the seal breaks, you get to put it in the refrigerator and eat it!

Lots of us on the Forum can foods specifically with gift-giving in mind. Zabby here has been busy all summer making tiny little jars of jams as wedding favors. And it's wonderful during the holiday season to be able to share with others things we have made, the kind of thing that can't be bought.

For a good set there has to be just the right ratio of fruit to sugar to acid. That will vary from fruit to fruit and also depends on ripeness. If the fruit you are using is very ripe you can reduce the sugar because there's more sugar in the fruit itself. (I hope that makes sense.)

With traditional recipes it's a rule of thumb to use about 1/4 slightly underripe fruit. As fruit ripens the pectin in the cell walls deteriorates. Underripe fruit has more natural pectin and strengthens the set.

The more times you make jams or jellies, the more comfortable you'll get with the process. It's very rewarding and even the "failures" (i.e. the syrups instead of jams) taste wonderful.

Another suggestion for those friends who can't ingest seeds: Try Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam or a recipe with pears, plums or other seasonal fruits where seeds aren't an issue. I just gave a neighbor with similar dietary restrictions pear preserves, apricot-pineapple preserves and spiced plum jam.

Carol

Melissa, I'm late to the party, but I'm glad you used the cheesecloth. My Squeezo/Villaware food mill does not get all the seeds out of raspberries, they are too tiny. It gets a lot, sometimes even most, but not all. Cheesecloth works better.

As for rhubarb, I love it but it is definitely past season here in Michigan. I have mine stashed in the freezer, already sliced and ready for rhubarb pie at Christmas. And, here is my recipe for rhubarb/raspberry jam.

Raspberry Rhubarb Jam

3 cups whole, fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries

1 cup chopped rhubarb

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 (1-3/4-ounce) pkg. powdered pectin, plus 2 Tbsp from another package, same size

8 cups sugar

Rhubarb contains a lot of water. Before adding anything, simmer the raspberries and rhubarb for about 8 minutes, to allow the rhubarb to give up some of the liquid. Let the mixture cool.

While the fruit is cooling, wash 9 half-pint jars. Keep hot until needed. Prepare lids as manufacturer directs.

Stir the lemon juice and pectin into the cooled fruit. Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the sugar, stirring constantly. Return to a full rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Ladle the jam into one hot jar at a time, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rim with a clean, damp cloth. Attach lid. Fill and close remaining jars. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (15 minutes at 1,000 to 6,000 feet).

Makes 8 to 9 half-pints.

Annie

Yes, the Villaware food strainer with berry screen gave me some really nice seedless red raspberry juice. I made several jars of jam and it was very popular. I'm now growing a new red raspberry called a Lauren and these are about twice the size as my original raspberries, pluch much more hardy with canes shooting up more than 10 feet tall.

Sorry I'm late with this, but why not heat the raspberries and put them in a fine sieve and mash them with the back of a large spoon. A foley food mill also works well for extracting pulp and juice.

Shirley, that is exactly how I've made raspberry jam for years, and it works just dandy. I use cheesecloth for jelly because even the berry screen on the food mill doesn't get all of those darned little seeds in red raspberries. It does a much better job on the larger seeds of the black raspberries.

If I'm leaving the seeds in the jam, which I do for myself and the kids, I just heat the berries and mash them up with my potato masher and don't use any other utensils at all to strain the seeds.

Annie

I opened a jar last night and it was delicious! My husband was tickled, he planted these bushes for himself long before meeting me.

I was surprised at how intense the raspberry flavor was. I have a friend who grew up with her mother canning and she claims that's the best kind. LOL - said if I am to start canning I better get used to the difference between mine and the cheap copies I find in the stores!

Thanks again to all of your for your support!

Most store bought jams are loaded with just sugar and water. Thats why your home made is so much tastier. When I made mine, I found that within 5 minutes I had more than a gallon of juice without a single seed getting through. My Villaware food strainer with the berry screen was fine enough that all the seeds and cores were pushed out the end of the sieve screen and it was pure seed mass. My dad had planted many red raspberry canes many years ago. Two years ago I moved them all out of the middle of the vegetable garden to the back of my land. I also added the Lauren type and must say that the berries from these new canes are over twice as big as the old ones. This is the first year since everything was moved that I have been able to get any decent amount again. When I plan to make some jelly, I will also be using some frozen canned juice concentrate, to extend the amount of the juice.

Took a couple of bites to get used to it, but I believe I am now a jelly snob! lol Now I think its the store-bought that has something wrong with it.

I had washed, mixed with some sugar and froze mine, and I too found I just had to stand there "holding the bag" to get my measured amount. Since I only had one box of pectin, a lot got wasted, as there was juice just from being in the freezer.

Now that I have done it successfully, I plan to stock up on the pectin and jars this weekend and squeeze all I can out of it!

I don't know what kind my bushes (cane?) are. My husband had planted them in the yard before I met him. I know they made great jelly - so thats enough for me!

Melissa

I have young raspberry and blackberry plants so I might try this once they produce some fruit. It is nice that this site shares valueable information.

Hi All,
I am a total Newbie! Planted a veggie garden and they are doing well. Also did strawberries and have lots of runners. Now contemplating raspberries. When is the best time to plant raspberries? What type is the best? I see a few said Lauren, is this general consensus? Thanks so much and I have learned alot from all the posts.

I was responsible for the Lauren post. They are a thornless variety and about twice the size of my dads old red variety, as far as leaves, berries, and canes. Think of Lauren as one of the biggest, and easiest to pick. After the second year (originally just three canes were planted), they are now going well past the old raspberries my dad used to grow, and are over towering his. They bear just a single batch per year, and the canes die out that next winter, so I have to cut most dead ones down. To actually know what is going to sprout again, or is dead, I have to wait until the next spring and see what canes show new growth, then cut down the rest. This time, a 12 foot long dead cane was removed! Give them plenty of surrounding room too, as they send up runners. I saw some sprout up to 20 feet away from the original planted area. MY compost pile is right next to them, and someday soon, I expect a few to sprout up out of the compost. If they do sprout there, I have to remove them.