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We lost our blue berry bushes last year. However, this year the raspberry and blackberry bushes are loaded and it will be a fight between me and the birds as usual. I do not try very hard to win. Yet there is something about a blackberry or raspberry just picked, warm from the morning sun and covered with morning dew that tastes like a berry is supposed to taste. Carl and I never seem to get many back to the kitchen. Somewhere between the bushes and the kitchen they magically jump out of the bowls and into our mouths.
We do not do a lot of jam or jelly making in our old age, but we do manage to freeze a few on some cookie trays and then right into a good freezer bag for later on in the winter.
When the kids were all at home we did a lot of jam and jelly and here is one of my old recipes.
Somewhere along my long years of cooking I discovered that one pint of blackberries equals one and a half to two cups of blackberries and basically the same rule applies to raspberries depending on the size of each.
Here is my tried and true recipe for Blackberry Jelly which makes about 5 or 6 (6 ounce jars) of great jelly.
Gather up 10 cups of blackberries and you will need 5 cups of sugar and 1 package of dry pectin that contains about 1 & ¾ ounces of pectin.
Next gently wash, remove stems, drain in a large colander and crush berries in a large bowl.
The next step is to drip the berries through a jelly bag or a cheesecloth lined sieve until you get about three and a half cups of blackberry juice which will go into a 3 quart stainless steel or glass pot (no aluminum pots please!). Add your sugar and dry pectin stirring constantly and bring to a rolling boil and then boil for one minute. Remove jelly from heat and skim off all the bubbles. A rolling boil is the reason to use a large cooking container because a rolling boil cannot be stirred down.
Method for using self sealing lids: Ladle the jelly into your hot, sterilized jars, one at a time and fill to within 1/8th inch of the top if you are using self sealing lids for your jars.
Firmly tighten screw band and then invert the jar for 30 seconds and then stand upright to cool. If you want you can process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
Method when NOT using self sealing lids: If not then fill to within ½ inch of the top of the jar and seal with melted paraffin spooning 1/8th inch layer of paraffin over the blackberry jelly making sure you cover it completely. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes until the paraffin hardens and then add another spoonful of paraffin on top of each jar tilting and turning the jar so the paraffin runs about ¼ inch or so up the side. Remember your jars are hot when you wipe the rims off with a clean damp cloth. Let your jars cool for 24 hours and then cover with a lid or foil.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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