Steam Juicer and Blackberry Jelly

The steam juicer has been the hot topic over on the forums at Chickens in the Road and a post by Dede ~ wvhomecanner on the Farm Bell Blog convinced me that I had to have one. I picked blackberries yesterday morning. Our wild blackberries are doing great this year. These are an inch long and so sweet.

I washed them and put them in my new steam juicer pictured below. Please ignore all those Friendship bread starter bags in the background.

I LOVE this steam juicer. It has simplified my life. If only I had had it last month for my cherries! You can find the one I bought here.

Water goes in the bottom, your fruit in the top and the juice is drained into the middle section and out the tube into a waiting jar. Awesome little invention! It took a few hours to extract the juice but extract the juice it did! From 2 and a half quarts of blackberries, I got almost 2 quarts of juice! Seedless, wonderful juice without the mess of a jelly bag and dripping and crushing....just beautiful juice pouring from the tube into a half gallon jar.
You can can this juice for use later or you can make jelly. I made jelly using this recipe!

Blackberry Jelly
3 3/4 cups juice
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 box pectin
1/2 tsp. butter or margarine (optional)

Extract juice from blackberries. Bring 3 3/4 cups juice and 1 box pectin to full rolling boil. You can add 1/2 tsp butter or margarine to prevent foaming. Stir in 4 1/2 cups sugar. Return to full rolling boil. Stir for exactly one minute. Remove from heat. Skim foam if any. Ladle into prepared jars. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with and adjust lids and bands. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

We've already opened a jar and ate it with some sour dough bread and butter! Delicious!