If you want to preserve fruits, without sacrificing the fresh fruit flavor. Raw packing with simple sugar syrup is the way to go.
The most common or the favorites to pack this way seem to be plums, pears, and peaches. Later in the season I will discuss these, but this evening we will discuss the littler fruit coming into season.
Following all the rules about sterilizing and processing (click here for that,) you seal in that fresh flavor with out loosing the fruits’ lovely texture.
Here’s what to do.
1. Fill the canning jar just up to the neck with the rinsed and drained fruit.
2. Fill the canning jar just up to the neck with a simple syrup (recipe follows)
3. Cover.
4. Process.
Blueberries, Cranberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Elderberries (presumably mulberries, Jen) — in pints 15 minutes; in quarts 20 minutes
Altitude adjustments — don’t forget to add 1 minutes to the processing time for every 1000 ft above sea level that you are.
What about the syrup?
Well, there are 3 basic kinds, light, medium and heavy syrup.
The syrup recipe you use depends on the sweetness of the fruit. Jen and her super sweet mulberries will probably want a light syrup, while cranberries might call for a richer, more sugary syrup.
Note: feel free to substitute honey for half the sugar in any of the following, if your a honey fan, that is.
Yield: 5 cups (each quart of fruit may take somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 to 2 cups of syrup.
Light Syrup (Simple Syrup)
2 cups sugar ( or 1 cup sugar + 1 cup honey, for example )
4 cups water
Medium Syrup
2 & 3/4 cup sugar ( gee, I wish I knew how to do the little fraction do-hickey on this computer)
3 & 1/2 cups water
Heavy Syrup
3 & 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups water
Procedure:
1. Mix the sugar and water in a pan and let it soak for about 10 minutes without heat.
2. Over low heat, stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
3. Increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Just briefly to get rid of the gritty texture.
4. Lower the heat and keep warm until you are ready to use it.
Other in the beginning canning series:
How To Make Jam — A Beginner Tutorial
How To Make Jam — The Canning Supplies
How To Make Jam — The Easy Canning Process
Recession Depression Therapy 
[…] method better personally). If you’ve never canned before, you can find 3 different syrup recipe here (about halfway down the […]
[…] make an amazing addition to a fall martini, bread, beef tenderloin, or anything really. I found this recipe for raw fruits in simple syrup. I wanted to take it one step further however, and add […]
I found this when searching how to can Strawberries with out cooking them and I am thrilled! This was my FIRST EVER time canning and it went perfect! I just checked both jars and the lids are sealed, I am so thrilled with myself LOL! I made some jam the other day and it came out great so I decided I better learn to can! I wanted something that kept the berries as whole as possible and didnt cook them to mush. I did have to cut a bunch of the berries in halves or 3rds because they were HUGE, my 3yr old daughter and I picked them ourselves at a local farm and most of the berries were as big as her hand! Thanks for this recipe and I can guarantee I will be using it in the future!
[…] I had read Well Preserved’s take on preserving strawberries this way. But frankly and surely (Hi Frank! Hi Shirley!), I didn’t understand how to get the berries to their gel point without cooking them down to mush. I was also tired from making jam all day, so I followed another (easier) recipe, the idea for which I got here. […]
[…] Nancy has good instructions for canning whole or sliced berries in a simple syrup; the same goes for washed, stemmed, pitted cherries. For more cherry preserving ideas from the […]
hm…. I would think that it might have the same storage potential as vacuum packing…maybe. IF that were the case, under refrigeration you might get the staying power of 2 weeks instead of the regular 3 to 6 days just as is.
Blueberries freeze beautifully. Another alternative for longer storage would be dehydration. There are loads of solar dehydrator plans out there.
Some people can their berries as pie filling, if that is where they will end up anyway.
What happens if you pack blueberries in a jar, fill the voids with clean, cold, spring water, and put the caps on under water in order to avoid any oxygen staying in the jar?
Would it keep? Would it need to remain refrigerated in order to stay preserved? Anyone ever try this?
[…] Nancy has good instructions for canning whole or sliced berries in a simple syrup and also for canning strawberry lemonade. For more strawberry preserving ideas from the Ball Jar […]
Thanks a lot, Nan, for saying that. I’m glad I’m not getting on your nerves, I was hoping that I wouldn’t. I just LOVE your blog. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I’m all about getting back to “our roots” so to speak, but I don’t know how it’s done, usually. So, you are like my connection. And I just love your blog (& you) to pieces. So, have some fudge, girl. 😉 By the way, I think I may try the raw pack with the mulberries too, but I’m still going to probably “tweak” the jam/jelly first. Actually, it tastes great it’s just REALLY thick like it could use some juice or something. But it is actually quite good anyway. Maybe I’ll do the exact thing next time except maybe not cook quite as long… since I didn’t have the “sheeting” phenomenon going on (with no liquid to really drip), I just had to guess. I actually am beginning to think that maybe mulberries have a plethora of pectin? I’m not worried about it, though. It’s fun to experiment (and my daughter loves it on her peanut butter sandwich) so what else is there in life? 😉
Watch out for the poparotzi. 😉
Without your questions, this little blog, I think, would have died a while ago. I do love question, comments, correction and criticisms, but so few people leave comments. So the squeakiest wheel, gets all the good info.
I’m sure readers are somehow confounded by what I write, but they just never let me hear about it. No muffins and lemonade for them. hmph.
Keep those questions coming. You rock!
Oh yeah, let me know how you like the raw pack idea, if you try it.
sounds like a great idea! thanks, nan! (btw, i’m beginning to feel like a celebrity around here!) 😉