I love blueberries.  I almost always have organic wild blueberries in my freezer to have in my cereal.  When blueberry season comes along, like it has, the kids and I eat them out of hand for the few brief weeks that we can get them.  As itty bitty toddlers, they would happily sit in the stroller, being wheeled through the local farmer’s market, munching on fresh blueberries the way other kids snacked on candy and cookies.

But when it comes to blueberry jam, it only has one fan in this house.  My husband, who won’t eat blueberry anything, obviously doesn’t eat it.  My daughter doesn’t like jam.  Period.  And her big brother is pretty sure that strawberry jam reigns supreme (hence the 25 or so jars in the basement right now).

Fresh blueberries in hand (well, in fridge), I looked for a recipe for an old fashioned, pectin free blueberry jam.  I wanted to make a small batch.  I found some basic recipes, but they all made too much.  So taking what I learned from them, I scaled the ingredients back and made just enough for one 250ml jar, with a bit left over to stir into cream cheese for a yummy bagel spread.

• 2 cups fresh blueberries, picked over, stems removed, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp bottled lemon juice

Place the ingredients into a medium, heavy bottomed pan and bring to a rapid boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium high and boil, stirring often, until thickened.  You can test with a thermometre (221F), or put a blob on a freezer-chilled plate.  Return it to the freezer for a minute or so and then smoosh it a bit with your finger.  If it wrinkles, it’s ready.  If not, boil it a bit longer and test again.  Mine took all of about 15 minutes, maybe.

Pour into a clean jar and refrigerate.  Alternately you could can it, using a normal canning procedure and boiling for 10 minutes.  But honestly, why bother?