Canning Blackberries

August is blackberry month in Powell River, BC. Almost everywhere you look within a kilometre of the chuck (ocean) you'll find vines growing in logging slashes, along road cuts and even on empty lots in town. One thing you won’t find for sale in the markets is blackberries. Why bother, they wouldn’t sell with all the free fruit for the pickin'. We even celebrate the blackberry each August with its own weeklong festival. This year I wanted to save a bit of the blackberry season to enjoy this winter.

My first “experiment” was with blackberry jam. That was so successful that I decided to try some other ways of preserving this delicious fruit. I like to make blackberry pancakes and have been buying canned blackberries during the winter. Why not can some of my own? I used the books Stocking Up by the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming and the Farm Journal’s Freezing and Canning Cookbook as guides.

Raw Pack Canned Blackberries

Pick as many ripe berries as you want to preserve. Wash and drain the berries in a colander. Fill canning jars to ½ inch of the top, gently shaking the berries down to remove empty spaces. The berries will shrink during processing. Cover the berries with boiling syrup (thin or medium recommended) to ½ inch of the top. Remove air bubbles with a non-metallic spoon or spatula. Wipe the rims and cover with snap lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath, 10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes for quarts. I used half-pint jars (a better serving size for the two of us) but went ahead and used the 10-minute process time. 

Sugar Syrup for Canning

Thin: 2 cups sugar and 4 cups water yields 5 cups

Medium: 3 cups sugar and 4 cups water yields 5½ cups

Heavy: 4¾ cups sugar and 4 cups water yields 6½ cups

You need about 1 to 1½ cups of syrup for each quart of fruit. Medium syrup retains best colour and shape of fruits. You can replace up to half of the sugar with light corn syrup or mild flavoured honey, if desired. Heat sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves.

Being new to canning I have been a little afraid of spoilage. I don’t want to make us sick by eating damaged foods. My initial tries have been with fruits and tomatoes that can be processed in boiling water baths. These are foods that are more resident to bacterial growth and deadly botulism. Even so, I have been very careful to sterilize jars and follow processing guidelines. Extra caution can’t be a bad thing, especially in this case.

Are you a new or experienced canner? I’d love to hear about your favourite items to can and preserve? Do you use a pressure cooker? Is it difficult? -- Margy