Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Preserving summer - Blackberry Jam

I spent the Labour Day long weekend at my friends house up at Pender Harbour on the sunshine coast. The weather was the best we have had all summer and the blackberries were epic.



I have never seen so many, and another friend could not stop herself from picking for hours at a time with no thought to her own safety.  By the end of the weekend we had buckets and buckets of blackberries and she was covered in scratches all up her arms and legs.  Some were frozen but 12 cups were turned in to jam.



Into a large pot went 12 cups of blackberries after carefully washing and removing all the bits of blackberry bush.




we crushed them down a little and then added 14 cups (yes 14 cups) of sugar and 1 packet of pectin.


we stirred this all in and brought to a boil.


we simmered it for about 5 minutes, and then poured in to sterilized jars. I think we could have done with a little longer, but I was worried about thickening the jam too much.


We processed them in the canner for 10 minutes so that the jars sealed.  Then took them outside for some beauty shots.


How wonderful to have a slice of whole wheat toast in the middle of winter slathered in blackberry jam it will take me back to a wonderful hot late summer weekend. 

Of course we did not wait long to consume some jam, the following morning I made some peach scones which were begging for thick layer of butter and blackberry jam.







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