For some reason I can’t quite mentally cope with which ones are blackberries (which in my head should be singular fruits) and blackcurrants (which in my head should be aggregate fruits). They are in fact the other way around. I was in Tesco’s today, carrying a bag of jam sugar that said “suitable for blackberries” and comparing with a bag of preserving sugar that said “suitable for blackcurrants” and ended up going to the veg aisle and finding a box of blackberries to confirm which one I wanted. I double checked this later on by also looking at a bottle of Ribena – blackcurrant, yet not aggregate. Learn, brain!
I went to my old house (where I incidentally have sort have moved back into, kinda) and picked 475g of blackberries from the overgrown jungle of a garden (figured brambles should be harvested before they are forcibly removed), and with the help of 475g of jam sugar, turned it into perfect blackberry jam! Bits and all. Heat up the berries to turn them into a pulp, then sieve them to crush the last few stubborn berries, and because I like bits then add the stuff that wouldn’t sieve back as well. Once heated and pulpy, add the same weight in jam jelly, and after about 5 minutes of a rolling boil you have jam! That’s it! (You know it’s finished because when you put a drop on a cold saucer it sets into jam). So much better than my chutney (which ended up very sweet and distinctly jam-like itself…)
Tomorrow or the day after I shall be making scones, and we can have homemade blackberry jam on homemade scones with distinctly not homemade clotted cream. Superb. And joyously the brambles are full of unripe fruit – so more to come! Plus as the bug has bitten I may have to go blackberrying.
