Lynn's Visit

One of my twin sisters, Lynn came to visit us this week. She lives just less than 1 1/2 hours away, so she comes to visit rather often thanks to her nieces and nephew that she can't bear to be away from! Lynn came on Sunday afternoon and left just this morning. Her main reason for coming (other than the children!) was to pick berries and learn how to make jam. So first thing Monday morning we drove to the blueberry patch with the kids and my mom and we picked blueberries. Alan wasn't too thrilled to pick this time nor was Katie Mae, so we were only able to get one gallon a piece. But that's ok, it was rather hot! We came home and dilly-dallied away half the day, but still managed to get one batch of blueberry jam made. Then after dinner we went to pick blackberries. Katie was still not very thrilled, but she fell asleep this time! But we got rained on and we were QUITE a ways from the house. We were soaked by the time we got home, but between the 2 of us (and Savannah), we managed to get a gallon of berries. Next morning, we went out again and braved the thorns and this time we got over 2 gallons of blackberries, so home we trod to get busy. We made 4 batches of three different kinds of jam, plus we canned the remaining blackberries. We made purple passion blackberry spread (which has twice as much applesauce in it as it does blackberries), plum jam, and blackberry jam. All in all, we made 22 pints of jam and canned 6 quarts of blackberries. It turns out it was rather expensive jam because we were so tired from all the canning that we went out to eat! Oh well, we had fun canning and have a lot to show for it. Lynn drove home first thing this morning to get to her tutoring and piano teaching. A good time was had by all!