Micro-Batch Berry Jam

My boysenberry bush is doing decently this year, but not all at once.  I accumulate less than a cup of berries every few days, and they don't keep very well.  Ok, they do keep, but the whole organic farming thing means I might have to share with whatever hatches.  I've become much less picky about washing off the larvae and eating the berry cooked.  Still find the green worms eating the kale disgusting.

What I'm giving you here is an option for a way to salvage the last of a carton of any berry you have. Making jam and canning are not synonymous.  You don't have to process and put up an entire year's worth to have homemade jam.  You can make as little jam as you want and refrigerate it.  This was enough for two English muffins.

Berries of choice
Sugar
lemon juice

1.  Trim and weigh berries.  You can put raspberries in whole, but larger than that and you should slice them through the core.  Strawberries are better quartered or sliced.  Blueberries need to be slightly mashed.  My scale happened to be on grams when I started weighing, so I left it there.

2.  Add half the weight of the fruit in sugar.  You're not canning, so this isn't a preservative.  It's only for texture.  Allow mixture to macerate (sit) for about an hour at room temperature, to allow the sugar to dissolve and pull the juices out of the fruit.

3.  Bring fruit mixture to a decent boil.  With so little in the pan, this is going to happen quickly.  Boil until fruit is cooked and starting to thicken, about 10 minutes.  The bubbles will look glassy and slower to burst.  Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice to taste (again, not a preservative), and transfer to a storage container.  Refrigerate and use within 1 week.

Yield varies

Difficulty rating  π