My husband's grandma has a giant patch of blackberries in her backyard. Little Abe and I spent a good deal of time in the hot hot heat last Sunday filling a bucket full. Those plants are ferocious! They guard their treasure with swords drawn and ready to stab. You can see little Abe and his papa wearing long sleeves despite the heat as a sort of pathetic guard against the prickers. I refused to put on a long sleeve shirt or jacket and treated the whole endeavor like a game of operation. I was rather successful with the exception of one incident where a branch attacked my left hand and arm. Yowzers!
I haven't ever been a huge fan of blackberries but I couldn't pass up the offer of free berries, a fun adventure, and little Abe getting to spend time with his papa and great grandparents. Our bucket full of fresh berries soon became four jars of blackberry jam. I made the three ingredient kind with no gelatin or pectin. A lemon is used to help the jam gel. RECIPE HERE It turned out a little too lumpy (I couldn't get the berries to break up as much as I would have liked) and I wasn't sure that little Abe would like it very much BUT we've both been vastly enjoying it on toast these past few mornings. I also had a chance to try a second go at canning. Last year canning the green tomato chutney was my first try. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I may actually can some of the tomatoes from the garden this year instead of frantically trying to use them all up as they ripen. The entire adventure turns out to have been a win, win, win. Except for the one pricker attack.
