It has been super hot here! It is supposed to be in the upper nineties and lower hundreds this week. Oh boy. Obviously, we're not the only ones with all of these fires going on! The weather has been pretty harsh so we are doing most of our farm work in the mornings and evenings.
My dad has been dropping me off at the blackberry patches in the mornings. It's a nice way to spend time by myself given that I live with stinky guys most of the time. I get to listen to audio books and whatnot with no disruptions. We've been making blackberry jam without thickeners this year. We have one batch of non-sweetened, and one batch of sweetened. We sweetened the blackberry jam with our own honey! There's a big difference, but I love both.
For those that wonder how we can our veggies and fruits:
Wash the blackberries first, then cook.
First, we tried boiling the blackberries in a pot on the stove, but it takes a long time and you have to check on them every once in a while. It also splattered across the counters a lot and left a big mess. (Blackberries stain) We decided to use this really weird way of cooking the blackberries. We used our "rice cooker" and put as many blackberries as we could in it. Then we set it at "Saute and simmer". This works really well because the mess stays inside! :) We occasionally mix the blackberries, but only about three times. For the honey jam, we pretty much waited until the blackberries were done cooking and then added the honey and tasted along the way. (Yes, we used clean spoons.)
Now for the canning part. We used pint jars by Ball.
Spoon the jam into the jars and close tightly. We have a set for pickling and canning. The use a large pot to boil the jars. This kills any of the extra bacteria inside and outside the jars. Take the jars out, and store. One way to check if the jars are tight and ready to store is by pressing down on the lids. They should not pop up or down; that means that they weren't closed all the way and you have to eat the jam fast. That shouldn't be a problem though! ;)
