Rhubarb Jam, 3 Ways!

Place plate in the freezer. You will use this later when the plate is nice and cold. Making the Base: In a large pot combine rhubarb, lemonade, zest and juice from the lemon, and salt. Bring to a boil. As rhubarb softens use a whisk or potato masher to crush the rhubarb until they are fully broken down. Gently boil for 5 minutes stirring continuously. Separate mixture into 3 equal parts (or close to equal, it doesn't have to be precise), leaving one part in the pot. Simply Rhubarb Jam: Start with the rhubarb mixture that was left in the pan. Continue to gently boil and start adding sugar, half cup at a time, stirring in each half cup. Stop at 2 cups, stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste test (please read * at bottom of recipe for more info on this). If not sweet enough to your taste (it probably wont be yet) add another half cup of sugar (or full cup if still very sour), taste test again. Continue in this manner until taste is to your liking (I personally stopped at 3 cups). Bring to a roiling boil, add 1 package of pectin, stir in completely. Boil for 1-5 minutes stirring continuously, doing the fork test every min or two (please read ** for more info on this). If the mixture doesn't thicken enough, add 1/3rd of a package of pectin more and repeat last step. Once thick enough remove from heat, ladle into sterilized jars, seal, and boil for 10 minutes (for specific instructions on sterilization and canning, see here http://www.wikihow.com/Seal-Glass-Jars ). Raspberry Rhubarb Jam: Combine 1 part of the rhubarb mixture with raspberries (you can use the same pot and utensils since all the same ingredients are used). Gently boil until raspberries start to break down then follow the same steps as with the Simply Rhubarb Jam recipe. For this recipe I used 3 cups of sugar. Plum Rhubarb Jam: Combine last part of the rhubarb mixture with plum puree (you either need a new pot and utensils or clean the ones you were using). Gently boil for 5 minutes then follow same steps as with the Simply Rhubarb Jam recipe. For this recipe I used 4 cups of sugar. In total the jams made around 15 cups. 3 cups of Simply Rhubarb give or take, (I always want less of this one), and 6 cups each of the other 2, give or take. Enjoy!!! *Taste testing: Remember that when hot, the jam mixture will taste sweeter then it will when cold. I'm new to making jam so my first few batches came out sour and I had to reheat and add more sugar. On this recipe I finally perfected my process to keep this from happening. Once jam tastes sweet enough while hot, take plate out of freezer and pour a spoonful of the jam mixture onto it. Let it cool (remember to keep stirring the pot so it doesn't stick!), then taste. If it still tastes sweet enough, your set, if not, add more sugar and try again! Remember to rinse and dry the plate and put it back in the fridge so that its cold again. **Fork test: Put fork into the jam and pull fork out with tines pointed down. Once the mixture is thick enough to stay suspended between the tines, it is thick enough. If you are paranoid like me and want to make sure its thick enough, get that handy frozen plate back out and pour a spoonful on the plate. It should thicken up within less then a minute. Enjoy (again)!!!