Late August blackberries

 I'm canning tomatoes and blackberries today. Zukes, hops, and tomatoes are also in the dehydrators. With luck, we'll make 83F, though the morning seemed quite cold to me.

You can see from all the fallen leaves from the young cottonwoods behind me that we are still feeling the effects of the drought. less than a third of the blackberry bushes are worth the effort but they are enough to keep me busy. You can also see the effects of old age here; I'm looking more and more like Andy Rooney. So it goes. 

Not being very patient when I'm harvesting, I've taken to carrying the pitcher from the blender in my harvest bag. It behooves me to do pretty good Q.C. when I do this; no one like to chomp on a stem. Some impurities are a good thing; it's the reason most country people have resilient immune systems. But we try not to be gross. 

These berries are considerably sweeter than the ones I was doing last week.

Five blender loads make a batch. After the last load I will blend some honey yogurt with the residue and call it lunch. When this has cooked down some in the slow cooker (lid ajar to let out steam), it will go into pint jars and be available to go with yogurt, pancakes, waffles, toast, or be repurposed with fruit juices or even wine. We have mostly white wine grapes as yet, and the blackberries help me pretend I'm making red wine ...