Black Raspberries
I am an avid trail-side nibbler on my walks down the trails in search of mushrooms. My favorite snack is probably the black raspberry. The beginning of July is a prime time for this wild fruit. Wild strawberries are just done and red raspberries and blackberries did not start yet. This year, conditions seem to be particularly favorable, and the black raspberry crop is extremely good. The berries are quite small and it is not easy to pick any significant amount. Extremely prickly bushes don't help. One will certainly end up with a number of scratches and thorns on one's hands and arms. I did manage to pick an amount sufficient to try and make one batch of jam. Berry jams are usually made quite sweet for a main simple reason - they need a lot of sugar to be able to set. The berries themselves are very poor in pectin. Insufficient pectin and sugar will result in runny jam. Recently I discovered a great product: Pomona's Universal Pectin . This product does not require sugar...