AN ABUNDANCE OF BERRIES

As November came to an end and December arrived in this cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt, I have dealt with an abundance of mulberries, strawberries and currants, converting these to fruit compotes in Vacola bottling jars, jams and jellies. There is such a huge abundance of Boysenberries each year from my three vines in the garden at Das Helwig Haus that I can’t keep up with the processing and I have learned to save for another day the fruits that I can’t use today by temporarily freezing them.

Frozen Boysenberries

One begins by picking the berries from the vines, which are thorny, and then removing any green husk that comes away with the fruit. When they are harvested and cleaned you must make the decision of what to do next. Freezing is easy, just fill boxes like shown above and place in the freezer.

Wear a long sleeved shirt when picking Boysenberries to avoid scratched arms. I don’t wear gloves, finding them too cumbersome, so frequently have to use my teeth to extract small thorns from my fingers.

Boysenberries

Sometimes the berries come away clean, other times the green portion at the end remains, which I remove when I go into the kitchen. Only pick the berries that are turning black.

If making jam place the berries in a jam pot and weigh. Add an equal weight of sugar and stir the berries, partly crushing to release juice.

Place the jam pot on the stove on high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Skim off the froth.

Skim the froth

Continue cooking the jam over a high heat. In the illustration I am working with 4 kilograms of berries and 4 kilograms of sugar. I find the old saying, “More haste, less speed” particularly appropriate when making jam. I could fit double the quantity into this pan, but then I would not be able to boil the jam rapidly for it would quickly spill over on to the stove creating a mess for me to clean. It is quicker to make up small quantities. The reason I need to boil the jam rapidly on high heat is that the sooner the jam is cooked, the brighter the colour.

The jam will go through a frothing stage, after which the bubbles will become larger. When they start to explode and spit hot jam at you the jelling stage has been reached. I can tell, due to experience, when my jam is jelling by holding my wooden spoon over the pot and watching the drops as they slowly fall back into the pot. You may prefer to pour a little jam off your spoon and chill it prior to pushing with a finger to see if it will wrinkle, thus proving that it has jelled.

Boysenberry Jam

Any of the comercial jars with clip tight lids are suitable for storing your jam. I pour my jam into a jar, screw on the lid tightly then upend each jar until I have finished filling all the jars. The jars should remain upside down for 2 minutes to sterilize the air within the jar and to create a vacum seal. Place the jars upright. Label when cold.