Tucked away in the depths of my garden are 6 very healthy raspberry canes that produce an inordinate amount of fruit. They’re like the rabbits of the berry world. They would happily take over the entire yard if they were allowed (they’re most definitely not!).
Basically what this means is, I wind up picking a whole bucket load of fruit every second day. I used to be able to give it to the neighbours but, a few years ago, my dad had the shortsighted idea of giving them a cutting of a cane for themselves. Now they have an inordinate amount of their own fruit and I have to find other avenues to get rid of the stuff.
Sam helps where he can. He’s a little raspberry mooch and picks his own snack whenever he thinks he’s not being watched. I’d yell at him but honestly, it’s a handful of raspberries I don’t have to pick (plus he gets those low hanging ones!). Plus, he’s remarkably gentle and ginger when he pulls them off. Quite something to watch. 
When I pick them he sits on the outside of the garden fence and patiently waits for me to throw him one every now and then. Last night while I was bent over in a stack of brambles with my back to the back fence, he went berserk! Barking at me, scratching at the garden fence until I turned around and found myself face to face with a raccoon sitting behind me. I froze, the raccoon froze and Sam just kept barking “lemme at him, lemme at him”.
So for those of you wondering, raccoons are not cute. They’re nasty little buggers and they are vicious. So I marched right out of the garden, got the hose and waged a war for the next hour with the little guy. He’d scoot up a tree to avoid the water, I’d go back to picking for a few minutes, he’d sneak back down, I’d spray him, he’d go back up the tree, etc etc until I finished picking.
To quote bugs bunny, you realize this means war…
Sam was torn… he desperately wanted at that raccoon but, he’s also terrified of the garden hose (go figure… he loooooves water but he hates the hose) so he laid down about half way between the two with a very “I’m watching you and if that hose were outta the way, I’d be ALLLL over you buddy” tough guy look on his face. Which is pretty funny because he only thinks he’s tough but he actually doesn’t have a tough bone in his body. He’s a slobbery, friendly goof who vigilantly protects me from robins and finches.
Anyway… I digress… the mountain of raspberries. Mostly I freeze them and every year I make no cook freezer jam. This year, I decided to my first ever batch of canned jam. Canning has always terrified me because I’m scared of giving somebody botulism. But, I think it went ok! It didn’t set as well as I’d have liked but it’s not a runny mess either. And all my lids popped so… hopefully we’re good! I made a big batch of freezer jam too, just in case! Either type, it sure is satisfying to see a row of jam jars lined up ready to go in the pantry or freezer and know you did that!
a bowl of jam fluff! You only get this with cooked jam and it’s awesome – mix it with butter and spread it liberally on fresh bread!
Curious about the recipe I used? You can find it here. I’ve always used Certo Liquid Pectin for my freezer jam and I used it for the cooked jam as well (I’m not being sponsored or compensated by Kraft Canada… this is just what I’ve used for years… including the recipes on the PDF!)
Food Photography Tips
This was ridiculously hard!! First of all there’s reflections all over the place from the glass jars that I didn’t even pay attention to until I got them on the computer. I totally need to watch that.
Second, I wanted to photograph the jars out back by the raspberry bushes, which was a great idea in theory but, in practice, sucked. The ground was hopelessly uneven which meant even if one part of the photo looked straight, the rest didn’t because everything was on a slope. I had to get a little creative with my tripod and the composition, which was probably why I completely forgot about the reflections. I was able to get a couple of decent ones here but even the top one had to be cropped to make it not look so out of line!
The nice thing was, the raspberry bushes and the rest of the garden blocked most of the setting sun which was directly in front of me at eye level. Instead of having to fight it, I got some lovely golden, diffused and dappled light!
(the raccoon photo was taken with my Blackberry and my hands were covered with water from the hose so I wasn’t holding it too well – lotta shake happening!)
Such lovely looking jam! If I was your neighbour, I’d be snaffling it all up. We had a grand total of 5 raspberries this year 🙂 But that said, we’ve only had the canes since last Sept, and I’ve heard it takes a few years for them to start producing well. No worries, I’ll snaffle my neighbours… he’s such a lovely guy, and all his fruit is ours, really.
I make sour cherry jam with Certo as well. Why mess with foolproof stuff anyway?
My raspberries have gone crazy too, but luckily I don’t have to fight any racoons, just some pesky birds. Good job on the jam! Right now I’m eating them like crazy and freezing some too for that moment in the depths of winter when I need to taste a little sunshine.
I’ve never made raspberry jam before… because the few raspberries I manage to get my hands on (the store boughts are sooo expensive, and I cannot go to handpicking more than a couple of times), I usually freeze for ice cream and to use for Birchermüesli during the winter.
I’m so jealous that you have your own canes! I usually take a trip out of the city with my friend and we pick our own at a farm, but the berries are small and few and far between this year here in Ontario owing to the oppressive heat we’ve had with no rain. I’m going to miss making my usual quadruple batch of jam.
Yours, however, looks lovely! Raspberry jam is my very favourite shade of red in the whole world.
What a great success with your first jam canning! The filled jars look delicious. Thoroughly enjoyed reading about your adventures with the raccoon and Sam’s desire to get in there and take care of it for you!
Wow! What a great first time! That jam looks absolutely incredible!
Thoughtful comments? They bring traffic and make sure that the people behind that traffic will be inclined to link to you themselves 😀 .
You have so much that you can pick raspberries every second day? Bucketfuls?
I am jealous!
Last year I had to scour a whole forest just to get enough raspberries for one cake (it was a cake for 14 people, granted, but they only got a piece of it each), and even then they were small, some had worms and some were bad.
But since we get fewer of them, I can just cook them without adding anything and eat the small amount made in the next few days 🙂 .