Sunday blackberry picking = Jam!

We all decided to go blackberry picking  yesterday afternoon, as I have noticed everything is fruiting early this year, and we were pleasantly suprised, We got 4lb of fruit in just under 1 1/2 hrs, not bad! I shall be back in a couple of weeks to pick more as there were stashes that are red and ripening. I noticed there were also lots of elderberries and sloe berries, has anyone made jam out of these before?

I  thoroughly washed all the fruits and de- thorned as soon as I got home yesterday, and stored in the fridge overnight.

I bought my sugar this morning and got to work on making jam.

You will need:

A big heavy bottomed preserving pan
Sugar thermometer (optional)
Saucer placed in the fridge

Its an equal ratio of sugar to fruit so I had:

4lbs blackberries
2 kg Jam sugar (or preserving sugar-both have pectin)
1/2 pint water.

Tip all the blackberries in the pan, pour the water over and bring up to a simmer and cook gently for 10 mins, then add all the sugar, and bring up to a rolling boil on maximum heat, it should still be boiling high up in the pan even when you stir it, it should look like this:

 Do this for 10 mins, then test for setting point,  spoon a little jam onto the cold saucer and push your finger through it , if it wrinkles or doesn't run back in then it's ready, or take off the heat when your thermometer reaches 220 F jam stage.

I got 8 jars out of this, so 8 jars of quality jam for the cost of £3.50, so am I am best pleased, the only down side was getting stung badly in the nettles , thank god that dock leaves are always in abundance to relieve the stinging, I also had loads of minute thorns embedded in my fingers, had to tweezer them out so a little sore today, but was worth it!

Go raid your hedgerows, and make jam, it's easy free and delicious!

These roses are gorgeous are they not?

They are a two tone pink blush, I cut them from my mums garden, they originally came from  my nan's garden, so I have now taken some cuttings and poked them into some soil, hope they take, great to have free roses for the jug, £10 for 6 in supermarket yesterday, Rip Off!!

Hope you had a happy productive weekend. :)