Blackberries

Yesterday I was shopping and blackberries were on sale for 79 cents! So I got 12 of those little boxes and got to work. Yes, they did need to be sorted well--they were on sale because they weren't pristine, but I only threw away 3 or 4 berries from the whole pile. First I sorted a big bowl to eat now, washed them, and let the kids pick at them while I worked. Then I made 3 other piles. One was another large bowl--to be eaten today! One was a single layer over a large baking pan, which I froze and then picked out of the pan and into a Ziploc bag. They'll be great to have when the berry season is finished. (I do this all summer with various berries, and they usually last till December or January.) The third group was in a colander in the sink.

With that, I washed them really well, to get any moldy spots off of them. Then I picked through them, to make sure they were clean and edible--this really was a formality as the high pressure spray took care of everything yucky. I put them in a pot with a bit less than a cup of sugar and about 2 tbs. lemon juice, and let that simmer for about a half hour. Then I cooled it and put it into 2 clean jars and popped it into the fridge.

Although this is not jam-- it's not as solid and has plenty of juice--it can be used like jam. It is also DELICIOUS over vanilla ice cream, stirred into yogurt, mixed into a smoothie, or on pancakes and waffles. This morning I had toast with it spread all over--I just used more of the solid berries and less of the juice. Fantastic.

Jen