Blackberry Jam

[WV Sawmiller]

   I picked a few blackberries by the roadside up by my son's house Saturday afternoon. Today I got around to making them into jam. Recipe was:

13 pints of blackberries
11 pints of sugar
double jigger (Maybe a half cup) of lemon juice
couple glasses of water to start the mix boiling without burning

Added all ingredients in a big pan, started on high heat stirring constantly. When the mix started boiling adjusted heat to med, med hi and kept stirring the foam down to keep it from boiling over. Heated and stirred for approximately 2 hours till the mix on the wooden spoon began to jell on a plate. Poured into clean hot pint fruit jars, tightened lids and let cool. Yield was 12 pints.

    My MIL used to make Blackberry jam and her berries stayed intact. Mine completely broke down into individual seeds. I gather she did not cook hers as long. Of course hers did not jell as tight as mine. I guess just a lot of personal preference there.

(Ever wonder why other countries find English is such a confusing language? Then tell me why a blackberry is green when its red.)



 
Scientific taste test in progress to determine if the jam tastes better on the right side (Bottom of the sandwich if you are right handed) or left. Conclusion - need to conduct more samples.

[Chuck White]

Looks good to me, Howard!

Blackberries aren't ready up here yet, but there should be lots of them.

[thecfarm]

I think we are half way on the strawbeery season.I will have to wait a while on the black berries. Blue berries up next.

[OneWithWood]

Blackberries are ripening as I type. 
Linnea and Jette are going berry picking this afternoon.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My son's strawberries ended the week before last I think. He has 30-40 plants in a big flowerbed at his front porch.

   We normally babysit for a couple hours a week, usually Wednesdays, between the time our son leaves for swing shift and the time our DIL gets in around 1700. While my wife watched the kids I picked some more blackberries. The 8 and 4 y/o wanted to go but too rough for them. After a few minutes they'd have wanted to come back home. Plus they killed a rattlesnake in their pasture a few years back so there are a few around. I am less concerned about them but the girls are much smaller and inexperienced with them.

    Got about 9 quarts this time in a couple of hours. Left about a quart with the granddaughters to munch on. They/DIL did not want to make a pie. I will have to pick up a couple dozen more pint jars before I process these. We have plenty of empty quart jars but with just the 2 of us at home mostly pints work better for us.

   I also picked up at least one tick so all my clothes are washing in hot water right now to remove or severely harass any still hanging on.