A useful link

This blog post is really short as it consists entirely of a link to someone else's page.

However I thought you would all find it interesting; I did considering all the blackberries I pick and eat straight off the branch..

So, before you go doing any more foraging, check out this link:

How to get worms out of Blackberries

And, kind of on subject, here is a picture of the blackberries I harvested last year.

I wonder how many little worms are frozen inside this lump.

Making blackberries into jam

So, the move has happened. I am no longer living in the house with the big garden where I can harvest food that I have grown, nor gather fruits from the blackberry bushes that surrounded the place.

This is quite a sad time, but I hope to be able (as I have discussed before) grow food in the plentiful pots and growing containers that I have collected and, in this way, learn a lot more about different techniques for being self sufficient.

One of the last things that I did while at the house, however, was to use all the blackberries that I had harvested last year and this to make jam. For reasons unknown even to myself, the recipe that I used is actually for Blackcurrant Jam but it has worked very well and tastes incredible so I don't think any harm was done.

The link to the original source is http://beingcreative.me.uk/blackcurrant-jam.html

This was far less time consuming than the chutney, as I did not have to chop anything, and also didn't have to leave it to mature over night. It did, however, take several hours and involved stirring the pots quite often.

One other thing to quickly highlight; I'm pretty sure I used too much water when I made it, as I thought "surely that's too little" but, people, follow the ratios!! Quite a lot of my jam actually failed to set, so I'm going to have to work out what to do with super-runny jam now.

Anyway, to the photos and instructions.

All of the blackberries, still frozen and in the freezer drawer. There were about 3.5kg here I think.

First of all I separated the big frozen blocks of fruit, and then washed them over with cold water in the colander.

Sunlight on blackberries, waiting to be boiled down.

This is the amount of sugar that is needed to make this much jam...

... and this is what that sugar looks like when it is in the baking tray ready for heating up and adding to the mix.

Water and fruit simmering gently waiting for the fruit to soften. As the instructions say, the fruit should easily squash between your spoon and the side of the pan before you add the sugar as the sugar will stop the softening process.

Adding the sugar. It is amazing how much there was, and I actually ended up throwing in another 250g because I think I put too much water in for the softening process.

All the sugar added, all ready for turning the heat up and boiling them hard prior to bottling.

Starting to get a good roil going on during the boiling process (beat poetry there, did you see it?)

I'm sure THIS wasn't supposed to be in the jam - it bubbled to the top during boiling so i hoiked it out and discarded, obviously after taking a picture for you guys.

The final boil coming to an end.

I pulled the pans off the heat a couple of times, and did the little check that is suggested in the instructions, until it appeared that the jam was ready.

The finished batch of jam - there was a LOT more than I expected as it didn't really reduce down the same as the Green Tomato Chutney did.

JAM!!

So there you have it. About 1/3 of the jam was totally set, and the other 2/3 in differing stages of set to completely runny when I packed them for moving.

I will get round to counting the exact number of jars and may update you. Suffice to say, the taste test on bottling was a big thumbs up.

Thanks for reading, please do comment and I'll be back sooner (as I have interwebs at the homestead now) so will be able to update midweek again.

Cheers

Blackberry Fly and eating apple

Hello again, I know I've been a while since posting an update, but that is because I have been out of the country for a bit.

I've not got that many pictures to upload today, I'll get some more tomorrow, as the outside tomato plants are going great guns and I want to photograph them, but for now I have a short update about two different fruits that are now being harvested.

First of all, I risked life, limb and skin-integrity picking more blackberries from around the garden the other day. While doing so I saw a dead fly attached to a blackberry, as if still eating it.

 While going on collecting I saw a few more of these; I can only presume that the fly ate until it expired.

I've just got back from a lovely walk and camp in the lake district and, while packing lunch for the walk, I finally got round to picking an apple off the tree.

The apple, pre-bite.

This was eaten sat on Walla Crag, above Keswick, and it was SO SO tasty!

I munched every little bit that I could, enjoying every mouthful.

Right, I'm done. There will be tomato related bloggage shortly.

Laters

Picking Blackberries

I have been admiring the developing bloom of blackberries that have been spreading around the edges of my garden and yesterday, with the sun finally shining in this summer, I decided to go round and harvest as many as I could reach.

A cluster of berries waiting to be harvested

Loadsa berries!

And again

I don't have a photograph, but I had to get my ladders out to reach these fruits as they were all about 8 feet above the ground, and over a swampy area of the garden (which has become a small pond in the recent wet weather).

After about twenty minutes of gathering I had collected quite a satisfactory pile of amazingly fresh fruit

All these fruit were collected from near the car port.

I also went to the bushes by the entrance to the drive, and round near the pond, and ended up with a nearly full pot.

Blackberry bushes have natural defences though :)

So, these berries have been added to the pile still frozen from last year and I will be making another blackberry crumble in the near future.

Any other ideas for blackberry based foodstuffs please do suggest away.

One of my blogs wouldn't be complete without a picture of some tomatoes, and there are LOADS on this plant, one of my most fruitful external plants. How many tomatoes can you spot? (click the picture to see it big, as per usual)

Anyway, enjoy

Some pictures on my NEW CAMERA!

So today's post is not really inspired by any progress in the garden, but by the fact that I have bought myself a nice new digital SLR and yesterday I went round the garden a bit playing with it.

So, without further ado, here are a selection of pictures I took yesterday.

Tomato flowers

The tomato bush inside

My drawing board, with more tomato plants next to it

Lily in the pond

Another of the lilies in the pond

Slightly different shot of the lilies in the pond

And again...

Clouds

Long distance zoom shot of a rose in the bushes outside the front of the house

The ditch at the front; needs clearing again ALREADY!

Honeysuckle close up

Honeysuckles again

Blackberry blossom close up

Blackberry blossom, and slowly developing blackberry fruit

Looking across the front garden wilderness (the pond is in there somewhere)

The front of our house

Our bench next to the pond.

So there you are, some pictures on the new camera and, while I have a LOT to learn about how it works, I think you have to agree the quality of the pictures has improved somewhat.