We're in a Jam!

What began six years ago as two little twigs from my father's blackberry bushes in Bloomfield, New Mexico have grown into two huge fruit bearing monsters in my back yard! They are thorn less which is heaven sent, and they have been full of berries for three weeks now. Saturday Richard, Rachel, Dee, & I picked for about an hour and filled a huge steel bowl that is two feet in diameter! We washed, drained, measured, smashed, mixed, stirred, and bottled all afternoon and have roughly a year's supply of jam to show for it! There were more berries left over but we ran out of containers so Dee made a huge pie; this after two pies last Saturday! There are more berries to come in the next few days and I already have a dozen quarts of plain berries in our freezer for future smoothies or pies. I cannot believe I am not permanently stained purple after all of this but it has been fun and we are thankful for this bounty. I found myself talking to Dad yesterday after a few hours of jamming and thought I felt him smiling at us!