Thursday, July 28, 2011

Blackberry Jam



Dan and I finally got up the nerve to trying canning on our electric stove in our little home in Portland. We hadn't canned anything since last fall, so we were a little bit nervous and feeling a tad rusty. But, everything went well and we even managed to can two batches of jam in just a few hours yesterday afternoon. 

The berries are just glorious in the Pacific Northwest. We had great berries in California but nothing like the ones that I have tasted here. I had purchased a half-flat of Oregon blackberries from one of the farmers at out little, neighborhood farmers market in King. Their sole purpose was to become jam. However, they were so ripe and delicious that we were barely able to control ourselves and not eat them right out of the box. Fortunately, we have a bit of willpower and 15 half-pint jars of blackberry jam to show for it. Most of which, will more than likely be given away as gifts. Our next canning project is raspberry jam while those are still in season. Oh, we are still hoping to find some local apricots as well since that is one of our favorite jams.