Guest Post // Strawberry Blueberry Jam

While I'm getting ready for the upcoming arrival of baby William (four more weeks to go!) a few blog friends have offered to take some work off my shoulders by sharing some lovely guest posts. Hope you enjoy! Be sure to follow me on

Twitter

and

Instagram

for the latest pregnancy updates! Love, Abby

_________________________________________________

Hey guys!

My name is Christina Main and I am the girl behind the blog,

Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe

! My little space is a food and lifestyle blog, where you will find everything from sweet and savory

recipes

to

DIYs

and

inspiration

, and even

words of encouragement

! I strongly believe in community and my hope is that when you visit, you become part of our family. So grab a cup of tea, a sunny spot in the room, and let's hang out!

I'm so honored to be able to take over Abby's blog for the day! Eeeeep! While thinking of things I could show you guys, immediately jam came to mind. Everyone

loves

 jam and I love showing everyone how easy it really is to make your own :)

Let's make some, shall we?

Strawberry Blueberry Jam

Makes about 6, 8oz jars

For printable recipe, click

here

1, 12oz bag frozen blueberries

2, 16oz bags frozen strawberries

4 cups

vanilla sugar

2 whole vanilla beans

1 1/2 cup water

zest of one fresh, washed orange

1. In a non reactive medium-large sauce pot, add all of your ingredients. For the vanilla beans, cut each one length-wise and carefully scrape out the seeds inside. Add both the seeds and pods to your mix. Stir.

2. Over medium high heat, bring your mixture to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat to low and insert a candy thermometer. **Or if you do not have one, you can place a salad or dessert plate in the freezer and do the

Plate Test

. To find out all about what the Plate Test is and just how easy it really is, click

here

. **

3. Cook mixture, stirring every 5 minutes or so until mixture reaches 220°F on your candy thermometer. If you are doing the plate test, remove plate from freezer and test a dollop of jam on your frozen plate. If it's too runny, continue cooking. If it's the perfect consistency, move on to the next step!

4. Turn heat off, remove vanilla pods, and puree to your liking. Then, pour into cleaned and sanitized glass jam jars and seal quickly with a self-sealing lid. Allow to sit at room temperature until your lid "pops" sealed. Once you hear that "pop" you know your jam is air tight!

**I'm fully aware that some people prefer to go the whole 9 yards and add their canned goods to boiling water to really sanitize and seal. If that's you, go for it! I personally have never experienced a problem with boiling (aka sanitizing) my jars and lids first, allowing to thoroughly dry, adding boiling  hot jam mixture to jars, fitting with self-sealing lids, and allowing to seal themselves on the counter. **

Great as gifts for friends or kept all for yourself! Jam will last for months in the refrigerator. Once opened though, it will last about 3 weeks.