Posts Tagged ‘blackcap jam’
Bountiful Harvest
You would be wrong if you thought the only thing we harvest at Wintervale is hay. Although, you gotta love that hay is one of our big crops, when our last name is, “Hays.” Of course, you may also be remembering that our horses produce an impressive amount of fertilizer, but as much as I boast about our compost pile, it will be a long time before we will be making any money off that.
The lesser known crop we have here, and the one with probably the best potential of becoming a future money-maker, is black raspberries. When Cyndie cans them as “blackcap” jam, they turn into liquid gold.
The wild bushes we have all over the place sprout a surprising amount of fruit in a short amount of time, often overnight. Cyndie has gotten in the habit of bringing a container along when she takes Delilah for walks, because new fruit seems to burst forth in places we didn’t even realize had the potential.
There is something special about the jam these berries produce. Their tantalizing aroma is almost as satisfying as the taste. If you already know and love that flavor, one whiff of the smell will trigger the irrepressible urge to consume.
We had no patience once the berries appeared, and Cyndie cooked up the first small batch she picked, to create a topping for waffles. A little local maple syrup over the top and we had our taste buds doing flips of joy over their good fortune.
This year, when conditions have been miserable for a lot of things, the raspberry plants seem to be doing quite well.
We’ve got a year’s supply of hay stacked in the hay shed, but I don’t think we’ll ever be able to stock enough of her blackcap jam. It’s just too irresistible.
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New Passion
I have developed a new passion for black raspberry jam. Cyndie has been making the jam out of berries we are getting from all the plants on our property. We learned that the local term for these berries is “blackcaps.” I have always been a fan of raspberries, so liking the blackcaps is no stretch. The flavor of these is as deep as the color.
Cyndie cherishes the berries so much that when we were about to clear all the growth behind the barn, she stopped and went to get a baggie to save the ripe berries before we cut. Unfortunately, she then stowed the bag of berries in a bigger bag that was filled with our cutting tools, and by the time she got to the house, her baggie contained blackcap juice, not berries.
Lately, we have taken to applying her jam over the top of some regular cream cheese that we spread on bagels, toast, or any variety of crackers. It is a seriously delicious combination. It makes me hungry just writing about it.
The crop has been good this year, and we continue to find ripe berries, still. It seems like every day, more have ripened, so the harvest has been ongoing, daily. The plants have all grown up wild, along the edge of wooded areas. Cyndie has tied some of the bushes up in bunches, to make it easier to wander among them to pick the berries. But they are everywhere around the property, so wherever we go, there are berries to be picked.
I need to apologize, in advance, to those of you who would otherwise probably receive a jar of her blackcap jam as a gift in the coming days or months. I think I will have exhausted the supply before she ever gets the chance. It’s just that good!
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