Canning the Best Blueberry Juice!

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     Do you remember last year when I taught you how to make Cranberry Juice from scratch on this post?   That cranberry juice was so good!  I hope I can get more cranberries this year to make a bunch more because we finished our last jar of it a couple of months ago.  Recently, I was able to get a bunch of blueberries at a really good price from our local produce wholesaler, and I wondered if I could make blueberry juice the same way.  So, of course, I tried it!  It has to sit a couple of weeks to let the full flavor develop, but early indicators are looking good!  Let me tell you all about it! 

     Last year, I had blackberries and cherries at the same time as my cranberries.  I used the Instant Pot method to make juice blends that were so easy to make and so delicious.  Plus, you could drink them right away and not wait.  But, in my Instant Pot, I could only make about a gallon of juice at a time.  It wasn't really enough to  can because we drank it up really fast.  I actually used that method with some of my blueberries and some blackberries, and once again, the juice was so good!  The cranberry method that has you put whole fruit right in the jars actually produced enough juice to can and keep on my pantry shelves, and that is what I wanted to do with my blueberries!  I gave it a try and here is what I found out:
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This is the photo of the cranberries when they came out of the canner. The liquid still looked clear, but the red juice was beginning to spread.

The blueberries looked watery when they went into the canner, but the color was already much darker when they came out after processing. This photo of this jar of blueberry juice was taken just 24 hours after processing.

     I was so happy with how nice the juice looked, I decided to risk opening a jar just 24 hours after canning it.  I wanted to be able to take pictures of it for this blog post and I was really curious to see if the flavor was already developing.  Guess what!  It was!  It wasn't a super strong flavor yet, but it definitely tasted like blueberries and had the perfect sweetness.  I think that in a couple of weeks, it will be perfect!  

Look at that clear, nicely colored juice! I'll let you know how it evolves in a couple of weeks.

     I made a little video showing you just how to make this amazing juice.  It is so simple.  I made 14 quarts in one afternoon, no sweat!  As you watch the video, you will see how the color is already darker when the blueberries came out of the pot than when the cranberries did.  

      As an additional note, when I put the lids and rings on the jars, I gave the jars a little shake to mix the sugar up into the water before placing them in the canner. 

     You may be wondering what to do with the fruit that is floating on the top of the jar when you open a bottle of juice.  Here is what I did.  I strained the juice into a pitcher, capturing the blueberries in the strainer.  I had mixed up a batch of muffin batter that was waiting for me on the counter.  I dumped the leftover fruit in the batter and whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins.  (I also had some fresh blueberries left over, and I threw in a handful of those as well, but it would have worked just fine without the fresh additional ones.)   I popped the blueberries in the oven and then we had muffins with our juice!  It was just great! 

     Other great uses for the leftover fruit, whether blueberries or cranberries, would be to:

• Put it in your morning oatmeal or pancakes
• Use it in a smoothie
• Add it to banana, zucchini or pumpkin bread
• Stir it into yogurt

Any other ideas?  Let me know! 
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