We were pleasantly surprised this year by the size and amount of blackberries we picked from our 2 blackberry canes that we planted last year. I made a couple of blackberry cobblers with some of the harvest. We picked the rest as they came in a little at a time and put them in the freezer. We also picked a few wild blackberries from our rural property and froze them. The blackberries from our thornless canes are substantially larger than the wild blackberries, but we are thankful for them all. It is ok to pick a few of your berries a little early before they have completely ripened (with just a touch of red in them) if you intend to use them for jam. The tart red blackberries have more pectin and will aid in the jam setting up. Still the majority of our berries were fully ripe when picked. All total I believe we froze about 4 gallons of blackberries.
Continue reading “Making Blackberry Jam”
Category: Featured
Quick and Easy Blackberry Cobbler
Yesterday when we did our daily walk-about we were welcomed with blackberries ready to be picked! How wonderful! Neither of us have ever seen blackberries so big before. We are a little proud of ourselves.
Transplanting Mint
Jon and I had discussed we wanted to plant a few herbs this year. We both thought oregano, basil, cilantro, and parsley to start off small with the basics. But I also wanted mint. Jon is not really a fan of mint and just doesn’t understand my need to plant it. I just cannot wrap my head around him not liking mint.
I love mint ice cream, Andes mint chocolates, peppermint patties, peppermint hard candy, candy canes, mint tea, mint gum (but it has to compete with cinnamon). Did I mention mint ice cream and Andes mint chocolates? Yum! Mint is such a refreshing and clean scent. I even put it in my wallflower scented plugin. Who doesn’t love a minty fresh mouth from brushing your teeth? Did you know that mint repels ants? I bet Jon will start liking it now. We have a serious ant issue at our house. Hopefully between the chickens and the mint we’ll rectify that.
So, a couple of weeks ago we picked up a 4 pack of peppermint plants at the farmer’s market. We planted them in a pot and set them out on the deck. They are doing quite nicely.
Peppermint Plants