How to Make Umsoba / Msoba / Nightshade / Nastergal Jam

Ingredients: 
Umsoba berries, Sugar, Patience. 

Preparation Time: About a year

This recipe written due to the dearth of reliable information on the internet about making this jam, more keenly felt after the strange outcome of my first batch. 

Step 1: Allow these 'weeds' to grow in your garden.

The plants are a Solanum variety. Possibly Solanum Retroflexum, possibly Solanum Nigrum. The confusion may be due to there being approximately 1500 Solanum species to choose from - including potatoes, tomatoes, bugweed and Jerusalem cherries (the latter two being Category 1 invasive alien vegetation). 
Apparently, several are suitable for this jam - those whose berries turn black and dull when ripe.

The berries are reportedly poisonous when green, plus there was always the spectre of 'Deadly Nightshade'. This was a mild deterrent; but since there weren't any dead doves littering our garden after they lunched in my umsoba patch, I felt a little more secure.

Besides, the faint risk that your jam may kill is a perfect excuse to keep it all to YOURSELF.

Step 2: Wait for the berries to turn black, then gather as they ripen. Pull or cut off. 
I rinse, dry and freeze every small batch I gather, until I have amassed a suitable quantity. 
Collecting enough may take months, even years. This step is the true labour of love.

Don't worry too much about the stalks. The greener ones cook down, the dry ones add crunch.

Step 3: Prepare. Blanch frozen berry collection in a bicarbonate-of-soda solution, which will turn copper-sulfate-y blue. 

This was the crucial step missing from my first batch, which tasted strangely coppery. 

I subsequently reboiled each jar on opening with a spoon of bicarb (baking soda if you're American), which promptly turned it a similar but even more vicious blue-green than the blanching liquid.

(Things got even more curious when one batch tasted burny. Deadly? No... it transpired that Dear Beloved had used that saucepan to cook up a batch of organic anti-aphid chilli solution)

Step 4: Make jam in standard fashion (1 part fruit, 1 part sugar) Do not add water - the berries will produce enough liquid  and the jam is pretty runny. Ensure the sugar dissolves before it boils. Boil until set point. 

I added an expired packet of commercial pectin I found lurking in the pantry, which probably helped the setting. I don't add lemon juice to avoid harming that unique subtle taste.

Step 5: Bottle. 
I have always sterilised my jars quickly and effectively in the microwave - add some boiling water and reboil in the micro. Never gone wrong.

 VOILA!