Pop, pop

Our freezer was full.  Full of frozen chicken, steak, sorbet, and last year's berries.  We didn't pick enough berries this year to replace them, and they weren't being accessed due to the brick-like form they had taken on over the last thirteen months.  Throw them out?  Never!  I hand-picked many of those berries myself, lovingly plucking the sun-ripened jewels from the thorny vine.  So, since I had no fresh berries with which to make my Second Annual Jam Batch, I thought I'd take a gamble on some forfeit and hopefully not frostbitten berries; creating some much needed room in our freezer at the same time.

So I thawed them.  A bag of raspberries and a bag of marion berries (a unique variety to the Northwest) brought me five cups after draining the juice/water.  Alas, the recipe called for six cups!  What's a girl to do?  I'm already pushing my luck with the soft thawed berries.  I considered my options: (1) drive to the store and pick up a pint of something, (2) bike to the store and pick up a pint of something (I promised James I would bike at least three times this week), or (3) *hallelujah!* I could go outside and pick some blackberries!  Blackberries are indigenous and ubiquitous here in the northwest, and there were at least a cup growing in my "front yard" (meaning, the parking lot of the apartment complex).

I totally washed them, don't worry.

Anyway, I made up the jam (have yet to clean the jam-splatters off the stovetop) and am now listening to the delightful *pop, pop* of the cooling jars as they seal, encasing the Various Berry '08 Jam (James suggested the name) for enjoyment throughout the year.