Homemade blackberry jam

Blackberrying in the Kings Park yesterday yielded about 3 pounds of blackberries, enough for making a couple jars of blackberry jam.

Consulting my landlady's age-old household cookbook, I worked out the proportional amounts of all ingredients, and then started the first-ever jam making in my life.

• 3 lb. blackberries
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 oz. water
• 3 lb. sugar

I was told by some elderly lady in the church that the jam will set only when there is sufficient pectin, acid and sugar present. As blackberries lack acid and pectin, the addition of fruit juice that is rich in these substances is required. In this case, lemon juice is a good idea because it aids the setting and brings out the flavour of blackberries. When everything was ready, I had a deep breath and followed the instruction:

1. Put blackberries with the lemon juice and water into a big pan.
2. Simmer very gently until the berries are cooked and the contents of the pan are reduced.
3. Add the sugar, bring to boil, stirring, and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.
4. Pot the jam.

It actually doesn't look as simple as it looks. I had to make sure the setting point is reach so that enough pectin was release and mixed well with sugar and acid.

Fianally, this first-ever life experience proved to be pleasant and full of fun – jam very successful. I've got four jars and a bowl (as I don't have enough jars).

Howevr, as I don't usually have my bread with jam, I may have to give away two jars or probably, following the Russian way, always have strong tea with jam so that my homemade blackberry jam can be consumed as soon as possible while it's still fresh.