Make Your Own Preserves/Jam/Jelly

Austin is an addict to jelly. He loves the stuff. Wants it on everything. Then I realized that the store bought jelly I had was full of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and things I can't pronounce. I decided I needed to make my own jelly/jam/preserves. I mean Austin already bounces off the walls, I really didn't need more sugar and other junk to help that along... really. So below is the recipe I used. I now have plenty of jam stored away for quite some time. I actually went to the Farmer's Market and got a ton of peaches and strawberries for a reasonable price. This made the whole process a frugal method as well. Oh, and if you are a little funny about using granulated sugar, you could also use raw sugar, turbinado sugar, unrefined sugar (whatever you want to call it) as well.

Ingredients:
4 cups of crushed fresh fruit-whatever kind you like
1 packet of Bell Fruit Jell Freezer Jam Pectin
3/4 cup of sugar (the box says 1 1/2 cups, but I used less)

You can dice the fruit up really small, mash it, or put it in the food processor or blender. Whatever you want. Then I added the sugar and pectin and the box says to stir it for three minutes. Then you put it in whatever containers you are going to store it in and let it sit with the lid on for at least 30 mins. Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to a year.

Containers: I found plastic containers in the housewares section at Walmart made by Bell. I liked them b/c they were designed for freezer jams and the lids screw on. Really though, you can use whatever containers you want, even freezer bags I guess.

Oh, and I found the freezer pectin around the jello at Walmart.