Strawberry-Blackberry Jam

Today was my first attempt at canning jam. I've made freezer jam before because it's easy, but Jonathan convinced me that I should try to make the kind that can keep with out electricity. The kids helped core and cut the strawberries

and eat the strawberries
I added the blackberries to the stawberries and mashed them in the blender. Then I poured the fruit into a pan with LOTS of sugar and brought it to a boil. This is where I think I went wrong. The recipe says to bring the jam to 280 degrees. I was barely there and it started to boil over so I figured I would rather be done than clean up a sticky mess. I guess I should have worked through it because the jam didn't set. It's more like a thick syrup than a jam. Here's Dyllan stirring. This is the point where the kids got bored with helping. Stirring takes a long time and it's hot.
After putting the jam in jars I gave it a 5 minute boiling water bath. All the jars sealed--the popping sound is the best sound of canning. I guess we'll just have berry syrup on our french toast for breakfast.

Here's the finished product. It looks good, too bad it didn't set.