posted 1 year ago
I make lots of jam with much less than 50-50 sugar. I add sugar after the fruit is hot and simmering, only just enough sugar to make it tasty, and a little more because it tastes sweeter while hot. I don't worry about it "setting," I just enjoy it with lumps of fruit in a runny sort of sauce. Intensely delicious, much tastier than 50-50 jam. I guess it's really preserves, not jam.
I've been doing this every year for about 20 years and it keeps for a year or two on the shelf just fine. I only do this with fruits that have natural acidity to them, otherwise add lemon juice: but your berries should have enough acidity on their own. Make sure to water bath the jars after closing them, like 10 minutes if the contents were filled hot, or 20+ minutes if they were filled lukewarm. It is the acidity and the water-bathing that preserve it, not the sugar, since I don't use 50-50 sugar.
Oh, and by the way I've never had a jar lifter, I just use rubber gloves: either the thick insulated ones or thin dishwashing gloves with thin winter gloves inside.
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.