First Canning

Laura, Joel, and I went over to Pick and Pick where we picked about 5 pounds of blackberries.

Here's Laura's half. The farmers said that it had been a bad year for them because of the April frost, so we just got enough for both of us to make some jam.

After a hot hour and a half or so in the field, we went for a swim at their house.

Aaaah!

I stayed up late and made jam. This was my first time canning, but I knew it was going to be hot work. Doing it at night was a good idea.

I divided out my blackberries so that I had what the recipe called for.

Then I gathered my supplies.

The jam came together nicely but I couldn't take any more pictures since I was wearing oven mitts.

After that I sliced up the cucumbers that Stacy and Star brought over. Dill pickles are supposedly really easy to make, so I tried a packet of Mrs. Wages pickle mix for the first time. It actually was pretty simple.

After a good night's sleep I woke up to find that all of my jars sealed! I now have 7 quarts of pickles (3 garlic spears, 1 spicy dill chips, 1 dill chips, and 2 dill spears) and 7 jars of blackberry jam.