Not far from where my parents live in South East England, you will currently find lanes lined with thick, scratchy blackberry bushes. They are sporadically protected by stinging nettles and the odd arm height thistle plant. Undeterred, we took a basin (with some bags for the overflow) and amid the afternoon haze plucked ripe berries from their vines. As we picked, the air became enriched with their sugar sweet scent. It’s just the start of the season in this locale with many tight and pale green berries still to grow into maturity.
Like candy when eaten in their fresh raw state they became intense and syrupy when we turned some into a homemade jam. The recipe we used is from one of my mum’s oldest and most used cookbooks ~ the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book published in 1978.
Wild Blackberry Jam
Adapted from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook
Ingredients
2kg (4.4lbs) Wild blackberries
Juice of 2 lemons
100ml (1/5 pint) water
2kg (4.4lbs) sugar
Method
Wash the blackberries thoroughly. A good way to do this is to soak them overnight in lightly salted water. This ensures the little bugs that might be inside all float to the surface for you to skim off.
Rinse them well and add to a large heavy bottomed saucepan with the lemon juice and water. Simmer very gently until the blackberries are condensed into a thick sauce.
Add the sugar, and as you bring to a boil stir rapidly (and carefully) into the fruit sauce. Keep stirring for the next 8-10 minutes until it sets. A good way to check this is to put some on a spoon and let it chill slightly on a small plate. Then hold the plate up and see how it runs. It should move slowly and stickily.
Pour out into prepared jars. I do this the way I learned from Tessa Kiros: Fill your sterile jars, put their lids on and turn upside down. Leave them there overnight with a tea towel covering them. By morning they are ready for breakfast. We used an assortment of jars and filled eight to the brim and left the last one half full.
Tags: summer
Beautiful! I wish we had blackberry bushes. would love to walk down the lane and pick a bunch! Love the jam, too.
LOOOVE homemade jam!
Wow…your jam looks phenomenal. Fresh, regionally grown blackberries. What a treat. Thanks for always stopping by my blog and commenting, it means alot, thank you
Those are big, beautiful berries! We have blackberries all around the neighborhood, and even out beyond the fence. When I walk to the bus stop, I sometimes grab a few and eat them. Hehe.
I love, love the color of blackberry jam, especially on yogurt. Oh my.
I’m picturing that jam swirled into a big bowl of porridge…so good. And thanks for the tip about washing the berries with salt water–that’s one I’ve not heard before!
Hi there! I found your blog from caroline’s whipped blog.
We just picked some wild blackberries for the first time last week – we stayed at a B&B in Michigan and they had
a big area full of them next door, so the guy gave us some bags, said “watch out for the thorns” and pick away!
I also made some preserves too – great to make those berries last!!
Thanks all for visiting!
@ dragonfly pie ~ My dad gave me that tip! He recalled his mum doing that when he was a young boy.
@ Heather ~ Hello, welcome & thank you for coming by! I’m coming to visit you now….
Oh man that sounds AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Blackberries=divine. FRESH blackberries…wow.. I’d love to go blackberry pickin!
These sound so refreshing! I love blackberries and there’s nothing better than picking your own.
thanks for visiting! will definitely be keeping up on your site. I added you to my “following” list so i’ll know when you have updates
heather
We went blueberry picking this summer…your photos remind me of the trip! How fun! And the homemade jam…yum…that sounds great!
Blackberries must be one of my favorite fruits but I always seem to live in places where they are rare and expensive. Your wild blackberries are gorgeous, not at all like the tiny hard ones that grew wild near my in-laws house. Lucky you! And that jam is heavenly! It looks so incredibly flavorful!
I’m heading back up to Marin in a week or two, and we have blackberries everywhere up there! I must-must-must try this! It’s like summer in a jar. BTW – love how your blog has been looking lately, the colors remind me of an icey glass of limeade
I love homemade jams, I’m not sure if blackberries are available here in the Philippines..