It may not look much from the first photo but I made the first blackberry jam of the year today after picking a kilo of berries from within a couple of hundred yards of the front door. Alison and I had got out with the dogs, we were dog-sitting Sandra's dog for the night, by 7am when we had a walk into the woods before I was off on my bike down to Verwood to bring home some white vinegar and some sugar with pectin for a busy morning in the kitchen.
The harvesting of the onions, shallots and garlic was done several weeks ago but I had decided to use a few of the smaller onions and some of the shallots for pickling which I did a couple of weeks ago. They look good enough and will be lovely over Christmas. I had then roasted the beetroot brought from the allotment yesterday and taken the skin off before simmering the vinegar with salt and sugar, as well as mustard seeds, a bit of chilli and some mixed spice.
Then it was time for blackberrying and the result a few hours later is four lovely jars of jam. There wil be more to follow and I picked another smaller tub for Alison to use in making a blackberry and apple crumble. It's a tasty time of year.
I did some more gardening and bird feeding before heading out for a run which took me off for 3.5 miles at a rapid pace for me these days in being well under 10 minutes per mile. There was still time to get Juno walked whilst I listened to Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy on audible.
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