A tale of two preserves

I bought 5 lb. of blueberries a few weeks ago.  Combined with the six quarts of blackberries Dave and I picked at Valley Orchard on Saturday, I figured it was the perfect time for mixed berry jam.  


Doing the jam was easily enough once you hulled the blackberries, but this was very messy and time-intensive.  I'm beginning to understand why there was no recipe for straight-up blackberry jam in my preserving book!

Still, the jam turned out beautifully, and since my friend was getting married that day, I gave her a jar of "Wedding Day Jam."

I also hulled even more blackberries and added them to apples and sugar to macerate overnight for apple-blackberry conserve.  A conserve has whole pieces of fruit that are lightly cooked and not mashed up like a jam.  You can see all the pieces of fruit floating in this thing, which is beautiful.


So that was my adventure in preserving blackberries!  I froze about two quarts and we're just eating the rest.  They were really perfect and fun to pick, and I highly recommending hitting up Valley Orchard!  (But not before I've had my pick...)