Jelly & Pickles

I went out in the morning yesterday and picked wild himalaya blackberries from the patch in our field. The rain all last week was hard on them, many were so soft they disintigrated at even the gentlest touch. I was still able to pick about 6 quarts of ripe juicy berries, enough to fill my biggest pot halfway up, in just over an hour. The berries aren't as sweet as they would have been with a bit more sun, but they sure are extra juicy. Perfect for Jelly!
I got about 3 quarts of juice out, enough to make 14 jars (the jars vary in size from cups to pints) of yummy jelly. With a little left over for a couple peices of test toast. :)
I also made a batch of crosscut dill pickles, 7 pints. This is my second batch of pickles this year.

Unfortunately my first batch (bread & butter pickles) came out short on the liquid so we won't be putting them up for winter, the seal is good but the top couple inches of pickles will dry out. Instead we are using them up as fast as we can... there are worse problems to have than lots of delicious pickles that need to be eaten though!