Four gallons of ripe, juicy blackberries, and I didn't even get a scratch--because my son Derek and his daughter Haley picked them. What a haul.I don't remember seeing such big berries in a long, long time.
The deal--they pick, I put up.
Blackberry jam goes into the jars.
A trick I use to reduce the amount of pectin needed: mix a cup of applesauce into every 4 cups of mashed berries. You won't taste the applesauce, and your jams will set beautifully--or so it works for me.
Another trick: turn the jars upside down for about 20 minutes after jarring up. It will make the seal "pop" more easily.
I ended up with 13 pints of jam and 14 pints of berries for the freezer--just for doing my part. We had enough left to make a good blackberry cobbler too. For my recipe that I posted last year, click here.
My sister Theresa added this recipe in the comments section of my blog the other day. I haven't tried this, but it sounds so good and so easy, I wanted to post it here so folks don't miss it:
"Southern Living had a great cobbler recipe...1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 4 cups blackberries, a tbsp of lemon juice (don't know why) and 6 tbsp of melted butter. Put the blackberries in a greased 8" square pan (so mine was a round cake pan, it worked) mix the flour, sugar and egg together, sprinkle (dump) over the blackberries, drizzle (whatever) the melted butter over the top, bake 35 min in a 375 deg oven...yum. I am not allowed to make it anymore unless we have company!" tm
I can't wait to try this, Theresa. I've got plenty of berries to work with.
In the small world that is West Virginia: Derek told me that the daughter of the man who owned the farm where he picked the berries recently started work at the same place I work.
So today I brought her a jar of jam, made from her father's blackberries.
She was so surprised. I mean, it's over 50 miles from her Dad's place to where we work.
"Do you know my father?" she asked.
"No, but my son does." A small, small world.
I enjoy reading your blog, both about West Virginia and your lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather's family was from Ohio. The older children were born in Ohio, but my grandfather and one brother were born in WV before the family came to Arkansas. I'm don't know where, probably just across the river from Washington Co, OH. Anyway, I've never been to OH or WV and love to see your photos and stories of the area.
I grew up on a farm in AR, doing a lot of the things you're still doing. Unfortunately, I've turned into a city girl now, but still enjoy going back to our family farm.