Blackberry Jam/Syrup

A couple of weeks ago LJ's sister came to visit for the weekend and brought two of our favorite boys with her. The plan was to go to blueberry picking but when we got to the farm we found it was already closed for the day.  We quickly called an audible and found some blackberry bushes near our house.

When we got back we found that one of the bags of berries got a little squished on the walk home (I think someone was swinging their bag as they walked).

I suggested we turn the blackberries in to syrup that the boys could use on their pancakes when they got home.  The first thing we had to do was press the berries in to the mesh strainer to remove all the seeds.

It took some work but we got all the juice out of the berries we could.

We added an equal amount of sugar as juice.

We prepared our jars.  We decided not to actual can the syrup because we knew it would be eaten very soon and just stored in the fridge.

We cooked the syrup to dissolve the sugar and reduce the syrup.  We actually boiled it too long (which was my fault for not paying close enough attention) so the final consistency was closer to jam than syrup.

We filled the jars so each guy could take home their own.

The final product in action on pancakes.

The boys did great in their first syrup/jam making experience.  They helped every step of the way and took all the pictures as well.  They even figured out how record a video with the camera.