Making homemade jam is one of my favorite things to do, and I used to do it a lot more often than I have in recent years. I actually used to sell a few flavors of homemade jam, mostly around the holidays, from the home bakery I ran for several years.
Lately I’ve gotten back to making small batches of some of our favorites, like easy Strawberry Balsamic jam, and I’ve been excitedly trying out some new flavors too. This Easy Triple Berry Jam is a very recent addition to our list of favorite homemade jams, and it’s been permanently penciled in. ☑️
This simple berry jam boasts a rich, gorgeous violet color and vibrant medley of berry flavors that we have found to be mildly irresistible!
How to make easy mixed berry jam.
This jam is simply made with a mix of whole berries, sugar, and lemon juice. Yep, that’s all, folks. It’s a delightfully short list of ingredients, and the end product is sensational!
Store-bought pectin is not necessary to thicken this jam, as the sugar creates a wonderful, rich syrup once it’s reduced, and the berries have just enough naturally occurring pectin to thicken it up properly through the jam-making process. The berries’ natural pectin is released as they are cooked and crushed, and the gelling process is further activated by the addition of the lemon juice (citric acid) into the mix. This vibrant triple berry jam thickens up beautifully as it cools.
Also, I most typically use a 3-pound bag of frozen mixed berries from the grocery store to make this jam as economical as possible. Walmart offers a 3-pound bag of frozen strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for around ten dollars. That’s a great deal for that amount of fruit, especially during the winter months when fresh berries are often available but at a premium price.
The frozen berries must be allowed to thaw, at least partially, before the jam-making process can begin. Using completely frozen fruit will add too much water into this recipe, and the jam very likely will not set up as well as it should.
During the summer months, I will use fresh berries from time to time to make this jam, but I honestly pick up the frozen pre-mixed bag of berries most often for it. I just think it’s such a great economical convenience, and it allows me to be ready to make this jam any time I can without worrying about the fruit going bad before I get to it.
Life happens alot around here, y’all. 😆
The berries will need to macerate in a measure of sugar for around an hour to release their gorgeous fruit juices, and then the brief cooking process will begin. Once the fruit is cooked, it must be slightly mashed, and then the liquid needs to be reduced a wee bit more. Lemon juice is the final ingredient to be added to the fruit mixture, and then the fresh jam must be ladled into clean jars to cool and be stored.
Making homemade mixed berry jam is a very quick, simple, and satisfying process with scrumptious results!
This stuff is honestly so good on toast, bagels, or stirred into a cup of plain yogurt and topped with homemade granola.
I’ve also been making the occasional PBJ with it too. A good peanut butter and jelly sammie will always be one of my favorite simple lunches; it’s honest-to-goodness comfort food heaven (especially on homemade bread!). Grape jelly is always a sweet old standby, but a PBJ with a good smear of this flavorful, homemade triple berry jam does feel a bit avant-garde even on a plain, old Tuesday afternoon.
Fun fact: Mixed berry jam recipes, like this one, are called “jumbleberry jam” in the UK! I just think that’s such a fun recipe name, and it really is kind of perfect. 🙂
Happy New Year, everyone!! We sincerely wish you all the very best in 2026. Cheers to doing more of what we love this year!! ✨💖🎇
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Easy Triple Berry Jam
This easy triple berry jam offers a little taste of summer any time of the year. This simple homemade berry jam features a blend of flavorful, whole blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries; it’s the perfect balance of sweet and tart.
40
servings30
minutes40
minutes5
cupsKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
3 lbs frozen mixed berries (a typical use a store-bought blend of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries)
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
- Special instructions for using fresh (never frozen) berries
rinse your fruit, drain it well and hull the strawberries.
Skip step 2 in the recipe below, otherwise follow the instructions as written.
Directions
- Clean/sanitize mason jars and lids for storage of the cooked jam and set them aside to use later. I typically use 2 (16 oz) and 1 (8 oz) jar to store the yield from this recipe.
- Place a large colander on top of a plate lined with paper towels. Transfer the frozen berries to the colander and allow them to thaw at room temperature for at least two hours, of course they can thaw longer if possible. Water will leak out of the colander as they thaw; change the paper towels as needed.
- Transfer the partially thawed fruit to a Dutch oven and coat with 1-1/2 cups sugar. Cover the pot and allow the sugar-coated fruit to stand at room temperature for at least one hour. The sugar will help to draw the fruit juices out (maceration).
- After one hour, move the pot to the stove and begin to heat the fruit mixture over medium high heat; bring the pot to a simmer. Reduce the burner heat to medium and mix in the remainder of the sugar. Allow the fruit mixture to gently simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring very often.
- After 10 minutes of simmering move the pot off of the heat and carefully use a potato masher to lightly crush any whole bits of fruit. Return the pot to the heat and bring the jam mixture back to a gentle simmer. Allow the pot to simmer, uncovered, for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring very often.
- Remove the pot from the heat. Use a ladle and a canning funnel to transfer the hot jam mixture to the cleaned mason jars. Cover the jars and allow them to cool on a rack. The jam mixture will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Enjoy the scrumptious triple berry jam with any sort of buttered bread, waffles, pancakes, and over ice cream and yogurt!
I like to use frozen fruit in chutneys and jams etc. So useful!
Happy new year.
sherry
Hi Sherry, thank you! Yes, it’s a great convenience 🙂
I have never thought to use frozen berries ot make jam — of course this is brilliant. I plan to get some berries this weekend and make a batch. Thanks, Marcelle. (I just put up 10 jars of lemon curd — lemon season in Tucson!)
Hi David, thank you very much 🙂 I think I remember your recipe for lemon curd being posted on your blog, I have to give it a try. I’ve never made it!! xo