Home-grown mumbles

Back in the middle of July, the raspberry bushes were producing more berries than we could eat in a day. It wasn't enough for jam, but I had the bright idea that if I started freezing them, when combined with the fall crop, I could have enough for jam.

Then a week or so later, the Blackberries started to ripen. it quickly became evident that I wasn't going to lose as many as I'd thought to the  dreaded fungus. I was going to have a decent crop. Not enough for jam, but definitely more than I'd thought we'd get.

And that night, lolling in my evening bath, I had an epiphany. Back when I made the strawberry jam, I had some pureed berries left over.  I stuck them in the freezer, with the intention of eventually making daiquiris.

But what if I combine them, with the raspberries and the blackberries... all in one jam... I could call it Mumble-Berry!

It sounded brilliant to me, but just incase I'd breathed in too many bath bomb fumes, I ran the idea by Mom. She said "Go for it!"

After that, I did a quick internet search, and sure enough, there were recipes out there. Though they had boring names like Summer Berry, or Three Berry Jam.

So... idea confirmed, I started immediately popping each blackberry I picked into a bag in the freezer to keep them from going bad before I had enough.

Finally, on the weekend, I looked at my bags and decided it should be enough.

I defrosted my garden raspberries

And my blackberries.... which the freezer seemed to turn a touch red. I mixed them all up in the blender with the strawberry puree...

... and I was a cup short! I'm not an experienced enough jam maker to mess with the levels of certo and sugar, so I made a quick run to the grocery store and grabbed two more pints of blackberries.

Once I was home, it was back in action. Just look at all those berry bits. Jam making may seem daunting, but it's surprisingly easy. Just three ingredients (fruit, sugar and certo), and about 30 minutes of prep, cooking and jarring combined.

And the result is eight jars of Mumble-berry jam - enough to enjoy and share with a few friends!