Been very Ma Ingalls here lately, what with the tomato canning, jam making, bread baking, pesto grinding. What? Ma Ingall's never made pesto?

The jam making was a bit of an experiment. I had a bit of each blackberries and blueberries but not enough of either to make a full batch so I mixed them together and went along on my merry jam-making way. I used a commercial pectin for this which included directions for a mixed-berry jam, but they included strawberries which I did not have and was not about to buy. So we'll see how it turns out. Pre-set it tasted great and the set up seems to be fine, a little firmer than I usually like which is what you get with commercial pectin but I can live with out. If the jam is yummy I'll post the procedure because I think that would be a great thing to remember for those inevitable times when one has a bit of this fruit and a bit of the other.

An old friend of ours used to put his leftover berries into one of those water cooler jugs, emptied and upended and topped with an airlock. Every addition was sprinkled with a bit of sugar and closed up again. After some time - I don't remember how long - the berries disintigrated into the most delicious and potent liquor. I drank the concoction neat, but he - being of hardier Polish stock - cut his with vodka. One day after we left his house he gave me an old Grolsch bottle full of the stuff and I felt as if he had given me jewels. Someday, I think, someday I will make some of this and share it with all my friends. Someday has not yet come and another berry season as come and gone. Ah, well. There's always next year.