January 21, 2009: Have a Berry Good Day!

I know. It's the wrong time of the year to be thinking about making blackberry syrup, but my friends, EG of Our Engineered Garden and Carolyn of Spcastles, already have visions of those succulent berries dancing in their heads and have requested I post the recipe on my blog. Since I tend to have lapses of short term memory, I'd better just get it done now...EG and Carolyn, save this one, it's really good.

This was my Mother-in-law's recipe, way back in the 60s. That was long before HFC was thought to be a bad thing. Now there is some indication high fructose corn syrup isn't so bad after all, so I'm not going to worry my old head over it.

I use wild blackberries for this recipe, but you can use any type of berries. Wash them well, put them in a large saucepan and heat, stirring and mashing, until they are hot and juicy. Press them through a colander, and then strain the juice through a jelly bag or two layers of cheesecloth. Sometimes the natural pectin content of the berries is so great that this turns to jelly rather than syrup. If that happens, we make toast!

Berry Syrup

2-1/2 cups berry juice
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute. Remove from heat and pour into sterilized pint jars. Cover with lids and jar rings and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.