Blackberry Jam

We buy jam from France. Ridiculous, but
Desirable not only for the variety of flavors,
Pineapple mango and raspberry pomegranate,
Besides the more standard strawberry,

But also because it is sugar-free,
A recipe that uses only grape juice
With apples as the natural pectin.
I can’t duplicate this at home.

All jam recipes I’ve seen call for
A pound of sugar to a pound of berries,
Which makes the whole so insipidly sweet
As to be thoroughly undesirable.

Recently, though, a new pectin came to market,
Allowing a quarter of the sugar usually called for.
Anxious to empty my freezers,
I made a batch today.

We taste-tested traditional blackberry jam from a friend
With Lykosh farm berries, made with low-sugar.
Our blackberry jam almost made me cry,
The blackberry flavor was so much more punchy.

And I thought of the sun-dried tomatoes,
The dehydrated garlic,
The canned tomatoes that turned bad,
The applesauce that none of us eat,

The crabapple jelly that is sugar in a jar,
The spelt and oat grains unhusked and unused,
The milking that produced small quantities for a short time.
So many Lykosh farm products I’ve tried and failed.

At last … a farm-raised product
I made in my kitchen
That I am excited to make again,
That we will actually use.