Haskap Jam

Okay, so I have been holding out on you.  I made this last July but I was not sure if this post would be interesting.  Especially since most of you will have no access to haskaps aka  Blue Honeysuckle.  Haskaps are relatively new to the Canadian prairies and are very well suited to our climate.  This is also known as the edible Blue Honeysuckle.  The season is early,  June to be exact.  I had never heard of this berry until I started visiting my favourite U-Pick, Treasure Valley Markets near Cadillac, Saskatchewan.

These berries are originally from Russia.  The University of Saskatchewan is studying the adaptability of this berry to our area.  The soil conditions and climate are ideal.

And yes, in Cadillac, the streets are named after models of cars!  Isn't that wild!

Linda of Treasure Valley Markets gave me a bag of frozen haskaps and challenged me to come up with a few recipes.  I had great success.  I made four different recipes and quickly went back for more.

But I have now been adapting my first tries and starting over.  I made haskap jam without pectin.  Last time I made a tiny batch and used liquid pectin.  It seems that haskaps have a lot of natural pectin and I had no problem getting this jam to set up.  In fact, I think I boiled it a little too long and have a very firm jam.  Remember the recipe for jams and jellies?  Fruit, sugar, pectin and acid.  I have not tried this without lemon juice, but there may be enough acid in the haskaps to make a good jam.

This jam is so intensely flavoured that a little goes a long way.  In fact, I prefer to use it in a recipe rather than on toast.

Haskap Jam

2 cups frozen haskaps
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Mix the haskaps with the sugar and bring to a boil.  Add the lemon juice.  Continue to boil until it has reached the jam stage.  Skim off any scum that forms.  Test your jam on a plate that has been chilled in the freezer.  Put a half teaspoon of jam on the cold plate and let it cool down for awhile.  If the mixture does not run when you tip the plate, it is thick enough.

So I know that you are scratching your collective heads and thinking, what the heck is a haskap?  What does it taste like?  They are an odd shaped berry and look almost like a lima bean.  They are very tart and must have sugar added.  But once cooked and sweetened, my gosh, they are the most flavourful and amazing berry I have ever tasted.  The common descriptor is to say they are a raspberry, blackberry, saskatoon and blueberry rolled into one.  In my sense of taste, they are a very intense raspberry/blackberry.  I would use it like I would use a raspberry.