Beautiful Blackberries!

There's nothing quite like freshly made
blackberry syrup to enjoy with
Grandma's Waffles!

YUM YUM!

Memories are stirred from
my own childhood days.
We would pick
SO. MANY. BERRIES.
that they would seem to take over the kitchen.

The children and I together got one large bowl full ~
And it only took an hour of picking to fill it.
The process of straining and
cooking up the berries was time-consuming.
BUT well worth the effort!

It's a treat when they are easy to pick!

Reaching for the "best" berries...
always a *little* bit too far away!

Watch out for thorns...they really grab on!


Often they hide under leaves...we hunt for them.


OH. THE. BLISS.

That first taste of yummy syrup was payment enough.
Want to know the "recipe"?
Want to know the "secret"?

I want to tell you that it has taken years to chisel this out.
There was no "tried and true" recipe that I knew of.
It was all "trial and error".
Many of the past jars of "syrup" were really
nothing more than less than firm jelly.
I had to heat it up to get it to the right consistency.

But now...
I think I've got it!
And I'm going to share the "secret"
with all of you! :)

How to go from this...


To this...


To bottled up yumminess!



~ Blackberry Syrup ~

10 cups extracted Blackberry Juice
1/4 package Certo Light Crystals (1 Tbsp)
7 cups Evaporated Cane Juice (Or White Granulated Sugar)
(This is enough for six pints of syrup)

How to make it?

~ Pick the berries

~ Wash the berries

~ Heat the berries just a little and mash
with a potato masher to get the juices flowing

~ Strain the berries with cheesecloth or a strainer to extract the juice
**Be patient**
This step takes quite awhile ~
I found that it took my batch about 4 or 5 hours of drip-drip-dripping :)

~ Measure the juice and hopefully you have enough,
if not, adjust the recipe accordingly

~ Wash your pint-size jars (2 cups) and lids
in hot soapy water and rinse REALLY well

~ Put your glass jars on a cookie sheet in the oven set at
225 degrees to sterilize them
(they should be in there for at least 20 minutes...
leave them while you make the syrup)

~ Boil water in your canner (fill it a few inches from the top)

~ Boil a little pot of water for softening the sealer lids
(don't put the lids in just yet)

~ In a very large pot put your blackberry juice and stir into it
the 1 Tbsp of Certo mixed with 1/4 cup of the sugar

~ Bring to a boil over very high heat (stirring)

~ Stir in remaining sugar and continue stirring...
return to a boil and boil hard (cannot stir down) for 1 minute

~ Remove from heat and stir and skim off foam for 5 minutes

~ During this 5 minutes of stirring,
put your sealer lids into the recently boiled water

~ Remove jars from the oven and fill to 1/4 inch from the top with
syrup, wipe with a clean cloth and place the sealer lid on and screw band
until finger-tip tightened

~ Place in the canning rack and lower into the
boiling water canner

~ Be sure the water covers the tops of your lids by one inch

~ Cover and keep at a gentle boil and simmer 10 minutes

~ Remove from the canner and set aside to cool

~ You should hear the *pop*pop*pop* of sealing jars within minutes of
removal from the hot water bath...SUCH a satisfying sound! :)

Any questions?
Feel free to ask!
I do hope you give it a try...
it really is super yummy!

Blessings,
Camille