I haven't been intentionally neglecting my blog, but it occurred to me this morning that I haven't had time to peruse any of my friends' blogs lately, much less update my own. 

The past few weeks my DH has been away with his work, and our children and I have tried to occupy ourselves with some fun things to keep our minds off of him being gone.  (Thank goodness he's back now! And a happier bunch you couldn't ask for since he is!)  One of the things we have done to keep busy (besides try to keep a grip on the housework) is pick fresh berries.  We found a nice place nearby that grows blueberries and *thornless* blackberries!  Big, juicy, plump ones, too!  So we have picked and had fun together, talking about how much Daddy would enjoy these wonderful berries when he got home. 

Of course, we had to make jam ... couldn't pick berries without making jam!  Each "crop" of berries that we picked were then brought home, flash frozen, and bagged.  That was the easiest way, so I didn't have to stand in front of a hot stove immediately after standing in the hot sun picking berries with Tiny Princesse in her baby sling.  It worked well because we picked berries once or twice each week and then I could make the jam on a different day when we were all more rested. 

So, without further ado, here is just a sample of our work thus far:  I believe these are some of the jars of blackberry jam. 

Oh, and the best part!  I used a low-methoxyl pectin with these, which basically means you can use little or no sugar (or other sweetener of your choice) with great results!  I used honey in one batch of blueberry jam, and in the other batches of blueberry and blackberry jam I used Rapadura (organic whole cane sugar).  Mmmm! Fresh berry taste and soooo much better for us!  While regular pectins call for about 7 cups of sugar, in these jams I used anywhere from 1 cup to 2 cups (I wanted to try the different sweetness levels, so I varied them in each batch).  I'm definitely impressed so far!