Berry Picking

Maybe the difference is picking in an less populated area with no bears but it seems my wild berry harvest this year is insane!

In less than half an hour, I had picked 3 yoghurt containers full of salmonberries and some huckleberries.

Last year, there were a lot of huckleberries on the bushes, I thought. But this summer seems to have the bushes exploding with huge berries that are left there just for us by all the birds.

Because of this abundance of wild berries, I will be adding a new product to the Awesome Canning line of product. Salmonberry Jam.

I must confess that I have never actually made or eaten pure salmonberry jam. I have made a lot of wild berry jams over the years but never a jam with only salmonberries. It will be interesting to formulate the perfect recipe.

Creating products for That’s Awesome! , is sometimes challenging since everyone has different preferences and expectations when opening a canning jar full of jam, jelly or pickles. Finding the perfect balance of sweet, tart and texture is a challenge.

But for now, I will concentrate on grabbing my plastic bucket with a string and go out there and pick all the berries I can fit into my containers.

And salmonberries are just the first of many berries. Hopefully, all the other berries will be as abundant.

My favourite berries to pick and make jams and jelly with are: raspberries, strawberries, salal berries, Oregon grape, blueberries, salmonberries, huckleberries and of course blackberries.

AWESOME TIP OF THE WEEK

When life is hectic and canning cannot be done right away, pick your fruit or berries and freeze them for a few days or weeks before making your jam or preserve. Freezing fresh fruit makes for a tastier jam than fruit that is refrigerated because it conserves its firmness and does not absorb all the smells and tastes from the rest of the items in your fridge. Unless you like onion flavoured strawberry jam… That’s ok too.