The blackberries are finally ripening! This year has been a test of patience for my older three children. The berries are close to being 3 weeks late this year which has had certain members of my family quite antsy. The kids really do look forward to our yearly blackberry harvest and who can blame them!

The other day we happened upon a spot that had the biggest blackberries I have ever seen. Nearly 3 inches around, I kid you not! To top off their size they are incredibly sweet too. Who doesn’t love summer and all of its wonderful bounty?

We returned to our “secret” little spot again today to pick some more and I am afraid we are now overflowing with blackberries in our kitchen. I believe by the end of this weekend my hands will be stained a permanent berry purple from all the jam and berry preserving I must get busy with.

I am hoping to attempt a blackberry jam made from honey instead of sugar—I’ve always used sugar in the past. I will be sure to let you know the results of this little kitchen experiment!

Hope you all are having a wonderful mid-August weekend!

Summer is sure flying by and I seem to be as busy as ever these days. I had originally wanted to write this post a couple of weeks ago but just could not seem to find the time to pull it all together. Better late than never though so here goes!

One weekend last month my family and I took advantage of the beautiful U-pick farms out by us. We paid a visit to a U-pick blueberry farm as well as a lavender farm that was having a U-pick (or more like U-cut) weekend to go along with their lavender festival. Some readers might remember this lavender farm from my post on it last summer. It is one summer daytrip I always look forward to.

There is nothing more enjoyable then harvesting your own lavender from those fields a buzz with bees. This particular lavender farm has the most beautiful views of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. The lavender combined with those views is very peaceful and relaxing.

Even though I posted quite a bit of pictures from this lavender farm last year I just could not resist posting some more.

The blueberry farm we paid a visit to that same day was equally as beautiful as the lavender farm. I do not think there is an area of the Hood River Valley that is not breathtakingly beautiful! The whole valley is a feast for the senses.

The blueberry farm also had an incredible view of Mt. Hood. Can you imagine waking up to this view everyday?

The kids had so much fun filling our buckets with blueberries. My now almost 3 year old daughter also had a blast running up and down the rows while stealing samples of the sun warmed berries. I was in love with how gorgeous the berries were hanging from those pretty shrubs. I almost spent more time photographing the berries than actually picking them! My boys and husband made up for my slow picking though. I was amazed by how much they were able to pick.

We came home with so many berries we were able to not only eat them fresh but I was also able to can several quarts of blueberry pie filling on top of sun drying some during that ridiculous heat wave we recently had.

I also was inspired by all the lavender we picked and came up with an interesting twist on making blueberry jam. I ended up making several jars of blueberry lavender jam. Everyone seems to like it too.

To make the blueberry lavender jam I basically followed the directions that came with my box of pectin. The only thing different I did was I placed several fresh lavender flower tops (10-12) into a mesh tea ball infuser. I then placed this lavender filled tea ball into the jam and kept it there while everything was brought to a boil. When it was time to ladle the jam into my jars I simply removed the tea ball. The jam turned out really good and has just a slight hint of lavender to it. Nothing overwhelming or too much; it is more like an afterthought than a pronounced flavor.

This summer has certainly been the summer of U-pick farms and canning for us. We hope to get out to the farms in the next week or so for the peaches and that will be followed by the pears. After the pears comes the apples and that is what I am really looking forward to. I hope to make lots of applesauce, apple butter, and pie filling. I am attempting to gather up some recipes for the peaches, pears and apples so if anyone knows of some good ones I am all ears!

As I struggle to keep this blog up to date I hope all my readers out there are enjoying their summer as much as I am.

In my last post on Friday I wrote about my family’s little trip to a U-pick strawberry farm. I mentioned I was going to be busy making lots of jam with the amount of berries we ended up coming home with. I had originally wanted to post these pictures over the weekend but time got away from me so here they are today instead. Better late than never!

We had so many berries and they were so ripe and ready to eat. The only down side to them being so late in the season was the fact that they were rather small. I did not feel like freezing such tiny berries so I ended up making preserves on top of strawberry jam. I have never made strawberry preserves before- just jam. The preserves did not set up as nicely as the jam since the recipe did not call for pectin to be added. The preserves consisted of three simple ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

We ended up having our homemade pancakes the next morning for breakfast instead of for dinner that Friday night as I was too tired from putting up all those strawberries! We used the preserves on the pancakes which were so good seeing that the preserves did not jell up as much as the jam. Plus I like the large chunks of berries the preserves have.

I am bracing myself for the next few months as I have a lot of preserving and canning planned. I am making it my goal to can as much fresh produce as possible to have for the rainy and cold winter months (that seem to last forever here in Oregon!). The blackberries are just a few weeks away from being ready and the first few crops of cherries are starting to roll in. Also by mid-July there will be the blueberries and I know a great farm for those. At the same time the blueberries are ready, the lavender farms are having their festivals. Then come August I will try canning tomatoes from the garden for the first time ever (we usually gobble them up before they get a chance to see a single canning jar!). On top of the tomatoes there will be the U-pick peaches that we plan on devouring. September will bring pears galore from the Fruit Loop. Not long after that the apples will be ready for more U-pick family fun which will find me making applesauce, pies, and apple butter. Oh, and let’s not forget that all the herbs I grow still need to be gathered and dried. This is of course on top of keeping the garden healthy and happy! This time of year can bring a frenzy of activity when it comes to harvesting and preserving summer’s bounty but I would not have it any other way!

I have been taking an interest in drying food for preservation as well and might give that a try this year. How about you? Are you planning on preserving some of your harvest this year and, if so, how?