First, thoroughly clean the jars, bands, and lids with soap and very hot water. The equipment must be totally sanitized before you start canning. Rinse off any soap thoroughly. Dry your bands and separate them from everything else. Place your jars in a large canning pot and cover them with water. Bring the water to a simmer, and leave the jars there until you need to use them. Do the same to the lids in a separate pot. This step removes any potentially harmful bacteria on the jars.

Having already washed, pitted, and quartered your fruit, place it in a large pot along with the lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Next, bring the mixture to a boil as you mash the fruit with a potato masher.

Once the fruit is well mashed, bring it to a boil and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. As it cooks, use a ladle to skim any foam off the surface of the liquid and discard.

The mixture should cling to the spoon and be thick enough to fall in clumps when you scoop some out of the pot. Net, use a spoon to fish out the fruit skins and discard. You can also pass the mixture through a strainer to remove more of the texture if you like.

Take the jars out of the pot using the jar tongs/grabbers (they will be very hot!). Drain the water out of them. Make sure they are still hot. Otherwise, the jars might crack and break when putting the hot jam in them or when they are put in the canning pot later.

Fill each jam jar with the homemade fruit mixture. You can use the jar funnel to avoid spilling the jam and creating a sticky mess. Ensure you leave at least a half-inch of space from the top of the jars.

While being careful not to burn your hands, set the lid on the jam jar, centering it. Then, keeping the lid in place, put on the lid band and tighten it just until you are met with resistance. This is known as making the lid “fingertip tight”. Do this with all of the jars. It does not need to be super tight, but should be secure.  Next, wipe off any spilled jam on the outside of the jars using a damp cloth.

The water in the canner should be 3 inches deep. Place the jars inside the canner. Cover the canner and bring the water to a rolling boil. Let the water boil for 5-10 minutes for each half a pint of water.

Let the canner cool for at least five minutes before removing the jars. Do not try to cool the canner by adding cold water or opening the canner pot’s vent. It needs to cool naturally in order to ensure the jar lids seal properly.

Most modern canner pots have a pressure gauge on them. You shouldn’t open the vent or take the lid off the canner until the pressure is down to zero.

Once the canner pot is depressurized, open the vent and wait another 10 minutes or so. Then, being careful of the steam, you can open the canner lid.

Using the jar tongs, remove the jars one by one and set them on a canning rack or clean dish towels. Never place the jars straight on your kitchen counter. They may crack due to sudden temperature change. Let the jars cool for 12-24 hours. You can loosen the rings a bit.

The lid should be sucked down. Press the middle of the lid with your finger. If it pops back up the lid is not sealed, and you need to reseal it before storing.

After cleaning off any jam that might have escaped its jar, remember to stick a label on each jar. You should write what’s inside each jar and the date that you made the jam. This way you don’t get confused later on, especially if you end up canning some more. Remember to rotate through your canned items based on the dates you made them so that you can eat them before they go bad.