Blackberry Jam

I went up the hill this afternoon and picked blackberries. I had been out there last Friday for about an hour and picked about three pints. But I had been rushed and was keeping my eye on the time since I had to drive the Tundra in to get it serviced and inspected. Today I had all the time in the world and came back with two quarts of blackberries. That was more than enough to make four and a half pints of blackberry jam. Which I did.


I was a little afraid the stuff wouldn't set up properly as three of the pint jars were very, very liquid even after quite a time out of the water bath. I began to think the pectin might have been a tad too old. But then I recalled it had worked fine with the blueberries. Eventually, the jam set and solidified nicely once it reached room temperature. Unfortunately, the seeds from the crushed blackberries separated and floated toward the top so the first couple of tablespoons out of those slow setting pints will be chock full of small seeds. Maybe next time I'll go through the trouble of running the mash through a jelly bag and make jelly instead of jam.

I now have 8 pints of blueberry jam and 4 1/2 pints of blackberry jam in the larder. And that's not counting the quart bags of blueberries in the freezer or all those zucchini breads stacked up in there like so many bricks.

Now I go in search of fresh peaches. And tomatoes. And then apples!