On 5/27/2014 10:47 AM, bluechick wrote:
> On Thu, 22 May 2014 20:42:00 -0500, George Shirley >
> wrote:
>
>> On 5/22/2014 5:05 PM, bluechick wrote:
>>> On Wed, 21 May 2014 16:40:38 -0500, George Shirley >
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> We hied off to a pick-your-own farm this morning and came home with
>>>> nearly nine lbs of blueberries. Picking were slim as there has been no
>>>> rain lately and it appears that the farmer hasn't been running his drip
>>>> irrigation system lately.
>>>
>>> We've been a week without rain after a very wet early spring. I hope
>>> it's not a repeat of last year.
>> We're seeing the same rain pattern here, drought for a month, then a
>> five or six inch downpour in a few hours. No rain in last ten days to
>> speak of and none for next ten days.
>
> Yep. We're about two weeks out from the last rainfall we had and that
> was very light. It's cloudy at the moment but I don't think we're
> going to get any of that 30% chance they're predicting. Same rain
> chances the rest of the week.
Yesterday ended our drought, started with about a half an inch falling.
About 0200 this morning I was awakened by a tremdous rain storm,
according to the weather folks we were in danger of tornadoes and some
areas had golf ball sized hail. We got 4.5 inches of great rain,
tremendous downpours for a few hours, with street flooding in low spots
and, now, a gentle rain with spurts of hard rain.
>
> All the blackberry flowers all over the place earlier in the spring
> and then lots of fruit looked so promising. But now you'd think
> summer was already upon us and there's no rain now that they're
> developing. I'm very jealous of the berries you and Miz Anne got. Our
> blueberries are being irrigated so we should have enough if critters
> stay away. That reminds me to get more bird netting...
We mostly pick at berry farms, lots of pick your own type farms within a
ten mile radius of us, some have been here fifty or more years. Where we
pick blackberries they do a lot of drip irrigation and the blackberries
were 1 3/4 inches long by 3/4 inch diameter, biggest blackberries I've
ever seen and very sweet.
>
> I hope we'll be able to find some blackberries that are worth picking.
> We have a few thornless berries we planted and I've been watering the
> wild varieties that are near the garden. *fingers crossed* I am
> determined to make more Blackberry Chambord Jelly this year. That
> stuff was awesome last year - and I don't use the word "awesome"
> often.
>
>> I used the recipe from UGA's "So Easy to Preserve" canning book. Would
>> recommend it to anyone from beginner to expert. You have to blanch the
>> berries in boiling water, there goes whole berries down the tube. I made
>> the sugar syrup and you mix the sugar and the Clear Jel together and
>> move on from there. The blanching in six cup batches is a PITA but I got
>> it done without scalding myself or leaving a bluish red stain on the
>> ceramic tile. You have to add some blue food coloring back to the mix to
>> get the proper color as the blanching eats up the color.
>
> Sounds similar to the 'Blueberry Pie Filling' recipe in Ball's
> "Complete Book of Home Preserving" which also uses Clear Jel and food
> coloring (as well as a little optional lemon zest). Have you used
> Ball's recipe? If so, why do you prefer UGA's? I'm not criticising
> UGA's method, just curious.
Most of those recipes were established with federal funds and all the
preserving books list them, the same recipe is in many of the recipe books.
>
>> Come on down, we lived in Louisiana for twenty-four years and have had
>> many people we met on the internet come by to visit. We're a little
>> harder to find now though but I give out directions. We've had folks
>>from California to Rhode Island and including Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio,
>> and other sorts of Yanqui's come by. Every one was welcome.
>
> Thanks, George! If I ever get over to Texas I will holler. You are
> most generous to host Southern and Yanqui equally.
>
>> We're off to pick seven or ten lbs of blackberries tomorrow. Will can
>> those as "pie mix" like we did the blueberries, still no room in the
>> freezers. Thinking of getting a bigger freezer.
Rinsed the blackberries let them air dry and then put them on bun pans
and into the freezer for two hours, froze them solid. Then quickly
vacuum bagged them for later use in four cup measures, just right for
pies and cobblers. They held up well to the vacuum with no crushing. I
keep both freezers at -10F and that helps. Now I need to get in the big
one and organize things again. We tend to just toss stuff in there until
it's full and then have to unload and organize. Maybe tomorrow, today I
was hanging curtain rods, again, and wire brushing and painting a sixty
year old lawn sprinkler, belonged to my folks and I just ran up on it,
sold cast steel base with copper sprinkler head, beats the heck out of
all this plastic stuff.
>
> Yum! I think everyone can use a bigger freezer, if there's room. It's
> kind of like a closet: stuff expands to fit the storage space you
> have. Soon, that bigger closet or bigger freezer is full before you
> know it! Been there, done that.
>
>> George
>
> bluechick
>
George, listening to the rain and feeling the arthritis that comes with it