Blackberries

Last night Fred and I stayed up until midnight making Blackberry Jam and syrup. Our neighbor Ed is a really, really terrific man. He is one of the most incredible gardeners I have ever met.He keeps bees, and chickens as well. He raised 8 kids of his own and started gardening when they were little. Now he has a killer garden and lots of surplus.

I'm not sure how it happened, but someone must have told him we had a whole mess of kids a while back. Ed ( and Betty his wife) decided they wanted to check out a family bigger than their own. I don't think he has ever stopped by empty handed since then. Ed brings us bushels of veggies and fruit all summer long. He is one of the only people who I would let into my house even if I was having a bad day since I know he knows all about that. (In fact last winter after being stuck at home too much he came by while I was hollering at the kids and it cracked him up entirely too much."its not funny Ed- I'm losing it". I said curtly and he laughed some more.)

The only thing hard about this is that Ed's garden doesn't check my schedule before its ready. If the blackberries need to be made into jam it better happen lickety split or it won't happen at all. So thats how I ended up making blackberry jam with Fred at midnight last night.

Before Ed left me with a few gallons of blackberries ( that I had to keep Sophielocks from snatching too many of I might add) He mentioned he knew how to make blackberry syrup. I asked him how and he went into a brief explanation. I asked him if he'd give me the recipe and he answered "I just did." so I hoped I remembered what he had said correctly and said goodbye sweetly.

Well, my memory is pretty wonderful 'cause that Blackberry syrup is about the best stuff on the planet. It did take a little work to get the juice with no seeds ( lots of cloth and straining) but WOW it is simply wonderful. I only wished I had a hot stack of flapjacks when we finished at midnight. Definitely will have to try it out this weekend.