From this to that.....Blackberry Jam

Well, I guess by now you have figured out that I am staying pretty busy in the garden, cotton patch and blackberry patch. I have picked more than a gallon of blackberries already and I haven't even touched the majority of the berries!

I have been picking the berries and freezing them getting ready to make jam. Today, I had some berries in the frig that I forgot to wash and freeze. So, I thought I would work on my jam making skills. I have never made blackberry jam before but I have vivid memories of jam being made at my house as a child.

I will never forget my Granny standing at the stove making jam. She would cook the jam and keep it hot as she lifted the jars out of the boiling water and filled them. She would always fold a flour sack down lengthwise to match the height of the jar. She would wrap that cloth around the hot jar and then roll the leftover cloth into a handle to hold on to the jar. One day when she was filling the jars the cloth slipped and dumped hot jam all over her forearm. She was burned pretty badly and Mom had to take her to the emergency room to get it cleaned and wrapped.

Since that day, I have a respect for hot jam. I don't use Granny's "cloth" method of holding the jar. I set the jar on the counter and use a canning funnel to fill it. Today, while experimenting using baby food jars for the jam, I dropped one and spilled jam all over the counter. I was blessed it wasn't my arm or my foot that caught the hot jam. I have decided that I won't be cheap any more when it comes to jars. Nine dollars a dozen for jam jars is cheap compared to an emergency room visit.