Berry Goodness

Last Saturday I woke up and made a batch of white peach jam.  I bought the peaches at the Green Dragon and I was disappointed that they were not very ripe.  You would like being at a farm market they would be riper but I used them anyway.  I love how white peaches turn fairy pink when made into jam. Later I saw in FB that a local farm had pick your own blackberries and I was on a mission that morning. I left Baylor with Meme and headed to the farm. I had to walk to the berry patch and it was a nice morning for a little walk.  I went to the last two rows in the patch and they were loaded!  I was only planning on picking one bucket full but I was glad I had brought two because they were so big, beautiful, and easy to pick.  I could have picked more but I forced myself to stop. 

I bought some strawberries, corn, peaches, and zucchini along with the berries and headed to the grocery store for other non farm market items.  Once I got home I asked Meme how to make jam the old fashioned way like she did when she was growing up.  She said her mom did two cups of fruit to one cup of sugar and just simmer until it jams. Or when you put a spoonful on a plate, draw your finger through it and it does not flow together.  It takes longer to do than with pectin but the results were just as yummy.  I make three berry jam with strawberries, black berries and frozen raspberries that I heated and ran through a sieve to remove the seeds.  I do not have enough berries at one time in my berry patch to make anything and the frozen worked well in this mix.  In a few years I will have some wine berries to add because I finally dug up some canes from the side of the road and planted in my yard.  I got into poison to boot!

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My parents came over Sunday for dinner and I made a free form blackberry pie and a peach crisp.  The blackberry pie was awesome!  

The fruits of my labor, one batch of old fashioned three berry jam, white peach jam, and low sugar three berry jam.  It was a good jam session.  To bad I rarely ever eat it!