Blackberry Jam with Lemon Geranium

We can consider ourselves among the lucky ones. Every August and well into September the paths, tracks and even some streets of Vancouver are lined with gleaming blackberries. It couldn’t be easier to grab a handful of these little beauties to snack on while walking to your destination, and what a treat that is. Tangy, juicy, wild and sweet, they are one of summer’s true pleasures.

Picking enough to make jam- well that’s a bit of a different game. It’s a summer past time that we share with many (including the occasional bear!), and all seem to have their favourite “secret spot”; the paths less travelled that are chock full of fruit (and sometimes mud.) So, we go, buckets and bags in tow, to find our little treasures.

This year we were extremely fortunate. My parents rented a home on the Sunshine Coast for the summer that was surrounded by blackberry bushes on two sides! Even more amazing was that the two of them picked buckets of blackberries just for Sticky Spoon, hand-delivered no less. I had to have been quite the sight, walking down Georgia Street and onto the Skytrain with four buckets full of blackberries.

We chose to add a few leaves of lemon geranium to our blackberry jam this year to give a touch of freshness to the already complex flavour of the wild berries.  Blackberries are very high in pectin which makes for a nice, thick jam and the seeds give it a satisfying texture (if you ask us.)  Clearly, as each blackberry that went into the jam was handpicked, we were not able to make a ton of this jam this year so limited quantities are available for purchase. For those of you who do get a jar, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.