Nature's bounty...

I thoroughly enjoy cooking, baking and preserving food. There's nothing like eating summer fruits and vegetables in the middle of winter.  This is a good thing because my family LOVES to eat. One of my husband's favorite sweets is blackberry jam. He is not a big breakfast person but offer him bacon and french toast w/ blackberry jam and he's at the table before you say it's time to eat.

We have a small patch of blackberry bushes by the barn but not quite enough for making jam or cobbler. But plenty for picking as you go by, enjoying on some ice cream or by themselves. So I put a request on facebook and got a wonderful response. The next day my son and I went picking and WOW did we hit paydirt. We filled up half a bucket within an hour and a half. If Jon would have put all the one's he picked in the bucket instead of his mouth we probably would have had another quart or two...haha.

The Ball Blue Book has a very simple recipe for jam. It's simply berries and sugar. Wash the berries in cold water and remove any bad ones or leaves. Crush your berries and mix them with the sugar. Cook it to gel stage and them process it in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Remove to a towel and wait for that tell-tale "pop".  Sooo good! When my husband tried it he said it was better than Smuckers. From one recipe I got 10 small jelly jars and 2 larger ones...and for only the cost of the sugar.

 

                                      

Jon had football practice BEFORE we went picking. Within 10 minutes of walking in the door he was sound asleep on the couch. And stayed there for well over an hour.