Canning blackberries allows you to take a short-season fruit and preserves it for year-round use, no freezer required.
Blackberries hold up remarkably well to canning and emerge for the jars firm and flavorful, perfect for use anywhere you’d use them fresh.
We eat a lot of blackberries in the wintertime. There’s just something warming about these soft forest fruits, perhaps it’s because they ripen during the hottest part of summer here in Vermont.
Or maybe it’s that they’re dark, like a deep red wine that you’d drink with a winter comfort food meal. Until I learned to can blackberries, my family used to buy them by the case for winter baking.
A quick batch of blackberry muffins? Blackberry cobbler a la mode? A warm blackberry clafoutis? Yes, please!
While you’d think a soft fruit would fall apart during canning, blackberries hold up remarkably well. I’ve found that canned blackberries work a lot better in baked goods than frozen, and they’re also perfect for topping breakfast cereal, oatmeal or yogurt.
The thing about canning blackberries at home is you get to choose how much sugar you use, and season them however you choose. The Ball Book of Canning and Preserving has a recipe for canned blackberries seasoned with blackberry brandy. Talk about making a warming winter preserve!
Personally, I think drinks like blackberry brandy or Chambord tastes a bit artificial, and I love adding regular brandy, along with nutmeg. Start by extracting a bit of juice from a small portion of your blackberries.
A small amount of sacrificial syrup blackberries means that the remaining fruit will be canned in flavorful blackberry juice, and they won’t lose flavor to the canning liquid.
Take 1/3 of your blackberries, crush slightly and simmer them with a small amount of water for about 2 minutes until they release their juices. Then strain out the juice through a fine-mesh strainer.
The “sacrificial” juice blackberries still have plenty of flavor, which means they can be reused in other cooking. But if you cook them longer than 2 minutes they’ll release too much pectin into the juice.
The remaining strained blackberries can be reused to make blackberry jam, or saved for topping ice cream or yogurt later. For each pint of canned blackberries, you need a total of 3 cups of blackberries, two to fill the jar and one to make blackberry juice for the canning syrup.
My recipe uses part homemade blackberry juice and part brandy for canning liquid. The resulting berries end up a tiny bit alcoholic, even after cooking in a syrup and canning.
In my house, they’re then cooked yet again into some type of baked good. At that point, there’s very little alcohol left, but if you want to make them alcohol-free that’s perfectly fine too.
The brandy isn’t necessary for preservation. Either add more blackberry juice in place of the brandy, some other fruit juice (like apple) or water.
Canning Blackberries
Whole canned blackberries are perfect for baking and they keep their shape and flavor through the canning process. Add brandy and spices for extra warmth, or leave them out for plain canned blackberries.
Ingredients
Blackberry Syrup
- 2 cups blackberries, divided
- 1/4 cup water
Canned Blackberries
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
- 4 cups blackberries
- 1/2 cup brandy
- Blackberry juice prepared above
Instructions
- Prepare canning jars (2 one pint jars or 4 half-pint jars) and a water bath canner.
- Place 2 cups of blackberries in a small saucepan, mashing the berries slightly with a potato masher. Add a 1/4 cup of water and simmer for about 2 minutes until they release their juices. Strain the berries through a fine mesh strainer, reserving the fruit pulp for another use.
- In another saucepan, bring 2 cups water, sugar and spices to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Add in 4 cups blackberries, brandy, and blackberry juice.
- Return the pan to a boil, stirring constantly to distribute the heat on the berries and blanch all sides. Be gentle so that the fruit are not damaged.
- Using a slotted spoon, fill canning jars with blackberries, leaving a generous 1/2 inch headspace.
- Use a ladle to spoon boiling blackberry syrup over the fruits, retaining a 1/2 inch headspace.
- Wipe rim, center 2 part canning lids on jars and close to finger tight.
- Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes and then turn off the heat. Allow the jars to rest 5 minutes with the heat off before removing them to cool on a towel on the counter. After 24 hours check seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.
Notes
This recipe requires 6 cups of blackberries, two cups to make the syrup and 4 cups to fill the canning jars (yield 2 pints). The syrup berries can be reused for another purpose.
More Blackberry Recipes
Diane
I canned blackberries once in light sugar syrup, and over time all the color leached out of the berries and into the syrup. So using the blackberry syrup as liquid keeps this from happening?
Ashley Adamant
They definitely lose some color regardless, but when you use the blackberry juice as syrup it’s much better. I just opened a jar of these this week after months in the pantry and they were a bright magenta color. Not that deep black of fresh blackberry, but still plenty dark and wonderfully firm and flavorful.
Becky Hamshar
I just tried your recipe but I made one simple substitution, light rum, for the brandy. Your recipe was easy to follow. Can’t wait to see how they all turn out. Thanks for this post!
Ashley Adamant
That sounds like a tasty substitution, and it should work out wonderfully. Hope you enjoy them!
Kay Gribble
I canned blackberries last year, but they turned out mushy. My recipe called for pressure canning.
Administrator
I would recommend trying the water bath canning and see if that works better for you.
Valerie
I have several blackberry plants that have been very gracious in their giving 🙂
We juice them, eat them in cobblers, yogurt, granola cerals & oatmeal. I’ve jellied, jammed and canned for syrup
though still have tons in my freezer and still picking. I will can the fresh berries picked though have to ask, have you ever canned them frozen? just wondering if they would get too mushy.
Thrilled to have this recipe, thank you!
Administrator
I would think that they would end up being mushy after being frozen. You can definitely use the frozen ones for jam and syrup and other things where the consistency is not an issue.
Tj
Hi, will this work with strawberries?
Admin
Yes. Here’s my recipe for canning strawberries: https://practicalselfreliance.com/canning-strawberries/
Yishay
I appreciate your writeups Ashley; succint and to the point.
Admin
Thanks a lot!
Mark
On a sugar free diet, so I have been just freezing the berries in a vac sealer, but the bags are out side my
Current budget. Can I can with out sugar?
Admin
Yes, you can!
Sara D.
On a whim I added less sugar and a little lemon juice, and oh BOY am I excited that I had leftover juice – I boiled it down as a syrup and canned it as well. Lordy, is this good, thanks so much!
Administrator
You’re welcome. So glad you liked it!
Leslie Hadaway
I am a diabetic and would like to know if I could use a sugar substitute ?
Administrator
Here is some information from the National Center for Home Food Preservation on canning without sugar. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_01/special_diets.html Basically it says that if you wish to omit the sugar in the recipe, you can use water or juice in place of the syrup. If you wish to sweeten it, artificial sweeteners can be used when serving.
Helen
Can you can without all the spices,,I like the natural berry taste.
Administrator
Leaving out the spices is perfectly fine.
Sue
Just made this and a few more minutes in the water bath to go. I ended up canning a few jars of the left over juice too. I took a sample test and it is so flipping amazing! Thank you for this great recipe.
Administrator
You’re very welcome. So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Marcus
Hi;
Nice easy recipe!
Can I do this with low sugar ? Maybe 1 cup.
Thank you
Administrator
That’s the wonderful thing about this recipe. You can choose how much sugar you want.
Claire
Could you add cornstarch or flour to a jar of this for pie?
Ashley Adamant
After it comes out of the jar, yes. You cannot can cornstarch or flour in the jar, but yes, you can thicken it once you remove the fruit from the jar and before it goes into a pie.
You can also can blackberry pie filling with clear jel, and there are approved canning recipes using clear jel so it’d be thickened in the jar and could go right into the pie.
Barbara
Double checking… Is it ok to use some of my frozen blackberries to make the “sacrificial juice”, and can the fresh blackberries in that juice? Thank you for the wealth of information you have on your site!
Administrator
Yes, you can definitely do that.
jenalee
I want my kids to be able to eat this. Does the brandy cook out or is this an ADULT ONLY recipe at this point?
Administrator
After cooking there is very little alcohol left but there is still some. If you are making them for kids, you can simply leave the brandy out if you wish.
Bonnie'
Can I can blackberry BBQ SAUCE?
Administrator
You should be able to safely waterbath can it as long as it is acidic enough.
Elle
Confused by your recipe. I first must “sacrifice” two cups of berries to crush for the syrup then in step 3 I’m adding the syrup and brandy to two cups of water plus spices. I made 4 half-pints and had about 32oz of liquid left in my pan. What the heck? Now I’m processing the liquid and calling it Blackberry Simply Syrup to use for cocktails or whatever. I wasn’t counting on that and obviously not thinking either…just blindly followed your recipe. Silly.
Administrator
The blackberry juice and brandy are not necessary for canning. The post explains that this is a flavor preference. You can swap out the brandy for more blackberry juice, water or other juice. The blackberry juice can also be swapped out for water or other juice but the blackberries tend to lose flavor to the canning liquid when you do this. It’s always a good idea to read completely through a recipe from start to finish before trying it to make sure that you understand it well and that it’s the right recipe for the end result that you’re wanting. If you would like further clarification, we are happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Zita
Do you prewash the berries before processing? How to? The berries I picked from my plant are a little dusty.
Administrator
Yes, if they’re dusty I would definitely give them a quick rinse.
Kathy Larrabee
Excited to try this
Molli Marshall
Trying this today ! When you use your canned blackberries for baking, do you drain the juice off ?
Administrator
It depends on the recipe. If the recipe just calls for whole blackberries then you probably don’t want the excess liquid. I would definitely be sure to save the liquid to use in other recipes though.
Kellie Riley
I am going to make this today, and wondering if I can just run the blackberries through my food mill and use that instead of the “sacrificial berries”. I typically do this to make seedless blackberry jam, and I’m hoping it’ll work for this as well!
Administrator
You really just want the juice so that you don’t release too much pectin into the juice.