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Need some input from people who ‘can’ .... I think I know what I’m going to try, but more knowledge is always better, so here’s the situation:

I found cranberries on sale for 50 cents a bag last year, after the holidays. I bought 6 bags, used 3 for the Cranberry Apple Preserves (12 oz bags ... if you need a pound or 2 pounds, you have to open more bags ... wish they’d just be 16 oz.). Anyway, I canned the Preserves earlier this week & when I got to the old house, I did a freezer cranberry inventory - I still have 5 bags ... it seems I had bought 2 bags before the sale bags & tucked them away (out of sight, out of mind).

With plenty of cranberries, I want to make the “Spiced Christmas Jam” on Mavis Butterfield’s site. It should smell heavenly & would make nice Christmas presents. I will put the ingredients below, but the recipe site is:
https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/spiced-christmas-jam/

Ingredients:
40 ounces frozen unsweetened strawberries or 2–1/2 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled
1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries
5 pounds sugar
2 {3 ounce each} liquid fruit pectin packets
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

I have 2 problems with the recipe ... the 5 POUNDS of sugar (confirmed by Mavis to be correct, in the comments) and the liquid fruit pectin packets.

Someone in the comments said 5 cups of sugar was fine. The Blackberry Merlot recipe is 4.5 cups, the Jalapeno pepper jelly is 6 cups. Using Sure-Jell, I use the pink (low sugar) for the Blackberry Merlot & the yellow (regular) for the Jalapeno pepper jelly.

Potential recipe modifications:
Sugar - use 5-6 cups
Sure-Jell - use 2 ‘low sugar’ pink or 2 regular yellow (leaning ‘pink’ - sugar to berry mix is probably on the ‘low’ side)

The recipe makes 12 jars .... the Blackberry Merlot yields 5 jars & the Jalapeno Pepper yields 6 jars, thus I think I need to double the Sure-Jell for 12 jars, just as Mavis doubles the liquid fruit pectin.

Think my ‘modifications’ will work? If they don’t, I’ll have some spicy syrup or could even freeze whatever I get if I don’t think it’s worth canning. I’ll still have 3 bags of cranberries left, too ... will have to look up some recipes that use them (other than for canning).

Jelly Jars - used 9 for the Cranberry Apple Preserves & will need 12 for the Spiced Christmas Jam ... I hate to use so many jars for “cranberry” items, so maybe I can find some jelly jars on sale somewhere. I have some ‘specialty’ jars I could use for the Christmas Jam since that will likely end up being used for gifts.

My nieces’ gardens are taking off! One niece is freezing blackberries for me (Blackberry Merlot Jelly). I can buy blackberries in the store, but they don’t seem to have much flavor - hoping her homegrown ones will be tastier. The other niece has tomatoes & squash. She’s pretty good at using her produce or freezing it ... she also did some pickling this year.

No produce, just herbs at the old house. This is probably a good thing because the juvenile marauding bear would be eating my garden if I had anything in it. This bear stole a watermelon the neighbor had sitting by the garage door (going to take it to the river for a picnic) & got into his trash. My brother found trash dragged into the back field - the bear has become a PROBLEM! We are keeping our trash locked up until the morning it gets picked up.

Crows - the resident crows have babies that are out of the nest & following the parents around. They are constantly begging the parents for food - it’s a certain, very annoying semi-cawing sound they make. I have started chasing them off after 10-20 minutes .... can’t stand the constant begging sounds!