We made the first little pot of jam yesterday afternoon.
Some friends brought over a bowl of blackberries. We ate a few. The berries looked up at me and begged to be made into jam. What else could I do but comply?
Blackberries are ripe and growing wild all over the place for the next week or two. I wish everyone would go out and pick at least a quart or two to make some jam. It would make them so pleased and satisfied.
Here is the way I make blackberry jam, courtesy of one of my most old-fashioned cookbooks:
Place rinsed berries in a pan. Mash with a potato masher. Bring to a boil. Boil til half the liquid has evaporated. Add 2/3 cup sugar (I prefer to use an organic evaporated cane juice) to each cup of ripe berries. Boil, stirring constantly until the jam will coat the back of a spoon. Pour into sterilized jelly jars and top with a lid if you are going to eat right away (as in the next few weeks) or seal with melted paraffin if you plan on keeping the jam for months.
Took me less than half and hour. Made the children very happy. Guess we will try to pick more berries and make more jam.
BTW, I prefer to leave the seeds in the jam. It is blackberry, for goodness' sake.
AND, might I suggest to my readers, if anyone out there does plan on picking wild berries, and I hope you will, be sure to wear long pants, long sleeves and take a nice soapy shower when you get back home. Poison Ivy, ticks and chiggers love berry patches.
Thank you God for blackberry jam.
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4 comments:
My neighbor gifted me with a pint of Montgomery cherry jam when I was in Floyd - it is to die for. I wasted some on bread but now I just eat a little bit of it at a time with a spoon .... I'm trying to make it last!
I like the idea of eating it with a very small spoon!
thanks for the recipe, ginger! there are loads of blackberries growing wild and domestic on campus. meara and i spent a couple of hours picking them this week. she is a good berry-picking partner. she climbed into the thick of the brambles for the big, juicy, falling off the vine berries and came out covered in prickers and scratches and sunburn, but we both knew it was worth it for the jam and for her chocolate birthday cake layered with blackberry jam and topped with those fat, shiny jewels!
Hey Holly! Glad you got some blackberries. Meara is a pickin girl after my own heart. Sacrifice life and limb for the berries. Chocolate cake with blackberry jam. Mmmm. We had pound cake with blackberry jam for Rose. You would have loved it.
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