Every year I make jam for all my kids, grandkids, relatives and assorted friends. I have always enjoyed making jam and the kids love it, so it is a fun thing to do. My personal favorite is blackberry, but Ron has been diligently removing all the blackberry vines around our property so our resident blackberry source has dwindled.
We noticed that when they rerouted Highway 9 just north of Arlington, they left a beautiful little paved area just off the main highway where blackberries drip down for about a mile from the hiking/biking trail to where the road used to be. So we put on our berry picking gear (long sleeves, gloves, boots, hats, etc.) and set out early yesterday morning to pick berries.
Unfortunately, the highway department is widening the road near there and are using the berry picking area to park their vehicles, but we still found a place to park and began picking. Then a nice local farmer came out to invite us to pick on his farm!
He had a nice long lane on perfectly level ground with a blackberry hedge all along one side. The berries were big, clean and beautiful!
That is a five gallon bucket!
At the end of the day, we had two gallons of frozen berries, all these jars of jam, and a few scratches all over our bodies to show for our work.
Ah, a blackberry kind of day. that sounds so like late summer. And yummy, too.
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