Lavender Grape Jam

By Monica Shallow • January 11, 2024

Part of the fun of ordering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box is getting to try new produce we wouldn’t ordinarily think to buy at the grocery store. At the same time, the challenge of getting a box of produce we are not accustomed to eating and cooking with is figuring out how to use it. That was just the case last week when a pound of Jam Grapes was delivered, along with a bunch of other beautiful fruit and vegetables. I was not familiar with Jam Grapes and had to Google them. They’re really pretty – petite, deep dark purple, almost black grapes, and so sweet. Easily a dessert all on its own.

Lavender and grapes – the perfect match!

Of course, I wanted to see how Jam Grapes would pair with lavender. Disclaimer – I am in no way a jam or jelly expert, and I have next to no experience with canning, but I am usually up for an experiment.

Here’s what I did:

Cooking down, smashing and mixing lavender sugar and grapes over a low boil.

Lavender Grape Jam

Delicious on toast, scones, or part of a charcuterie board.

Ingredients

1 pound of Jam Grapes (approximately 3 ½ cups), washed
1 ½ cups of Lavender Sugar (recipe here)

Directions

Place grapes and Lavender Sugar in a pot and place over low heat; bring to a low boil.
Crush grapes, mixing in the Lavender Sugar at the same time until combined. I used a meat and potato masher tool like this.
Continue to cook, keeping a low boil, for about 12-15 minutes.
I chose to remove the seeds I could see at this stage.*
Pour into mason jars. I used these.

*Seeds can be removed before cooking, but I found it to be pretty easy to scoop the seeds out with a spoon after cooking the mixture down a bit. The grapes are “seedless” but still have small seeds.

Full disclosure, I took my jam off the stove and put it into jars, and then was not quite happy that there was more liquid than I wanted. I waited for it to set a bit, but it still didn’t set up as much as I had hoped. So, I put it back on the stove to cook it down a little more for the consistency I was looking for. In total, I cooked the mixture for approximately 15-17 minutes.