You won’t find any jam as good as your own! Chemicals. If you buy imports in this country many companies are forced to add chemicals to pass inspection. I only eat my own jam in the US. In France i buy my jam from Monestère Solan. No chemicals or spray of any kind. The nuns grow, harvest the fruits and make their own jams and wine. All are outstanding. They have very the best apricot jam ever!
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Good to know. It has been a lot of fun growing fruit. Some of my friends are blown away. Those that get it are very impressed. I had one person say i should market the jam. But the fact it has no chemicals or preservatives it only retains color for about 6 months. By a year it has changed, even with acidic additives to maintain color. I’m only going to make small batches of jam as I use little and even though I can give it away, I’m not into growing to give away fruit. Of course I will, but when you consume only 10% why am I doing this? So jams will be limited. Now with syrups I use just to make cordials. So everyday this winter I have had blackberry, raspberry, red or black currants cordials. I still have plenty too. Also I find that the black currants and raspberry syrups are great in mixed drinks. I like to mix with tonic or lemonade and vodka. makes a fabulous mixed drink. The syrup over ice cream is to die for too, especially the black currant.
The syrups are rather tart as I’m trying to limit sugar. A 3 to 1 ratio of fruit to sugar is still fairly sweet. I use 1000 grams of fruit and 150g of sugar and 150g of a sugar substitute like Stevia. I also sometimes add juice and zest of 2 lemons, mostly to the black currants. I like the flavor with lemon. I usually skip it with other fruit.
You can clean the fruit first and add sugar later or add sugar and clean fruit, it doesn’t matter.
I take frozen fruit and put 1000 grams in a saucer and heat on low till defrosted. I then set heat on medium high and once boiling simmer for about 10 minutes. I let it cool 10 minutes or so and run through a fine sieve that will remove the seeds and any stems, and also the pulp. I use a pestle to push as much pulp through the strainer as possible. I don’t need a clear syrup. Much nutrition is in the pulp and fiber too. I then mix the sugar in and simmer for 3 minutes. Any longer and you might have jam. Sometime you have to skin some jelled product off. if you mix while cooling off, it will not gel. Plus the low sugar amount helps prevent jelling. I have found the syrup is very stable and will not settle or separate in any way. It should be good in the fridge for a month or longer. I freeze it till I use it too.
If you wish a clear cordial you can filter out all pulp. Here is one recipe, note I use less sugar. http://www.swedishfood.com/swedish-drink-recipes/180-redcurrant-cordial
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Trying again, My Snow Bank’s are scheduled to arrive tomarrow. Still available if anyone wants to be sure they get a virus free cultured plant.
Polar White are cheep here https://www.jungseed.com/P/30379/Polar+Berry+Blackberry
Polar whites are forming flowers
Snow banks are just chilling I guese there forming roots and will outgrow what ever this is.
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I cannot wait until they bare fruit. What can a white blackberry taste like?
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I had almost forgotten this thread… I need to get that Snowbank berry! I still want to try breeding pale-fruited hybrids. White Blackberry x Yellow Raspberr, Yellow Raspberry x Yellowcap, the possibilities are endless.
I finally have some extra time on my hands to restart the breeding projects, but the alpine strawberries are winding down flowering, and I expect the raspberries will start flowering in a few months. Maybe if I pamper the straws a little, they’ll kick up their flowering again; clean off the old leaves, a bit of pruning, some repotting with fresh soil and a dash of fertilizer should do the trick.
This time, I think I might try raspberry pollen on strawberry flowers. Raspberry pollen is easier to collect, and might not be as sensitive to heat. My big issues would be catching the straw’s flowers at the right stage, and later isolating them.
Are blackberries considered more basal than raspberries? I wonder if I might get better results if I use Snowbank instead of Caroline with the strawberry.
What do you mean by that?
My inspiration!
Lower down on the family tree; a more accurate word than “primitive”. I might be mistaken, but I’m of the impression that when crossing between different branches of a family tree, it’s easier to cross basal species of those branches instead of derived species, since the basal species are closer to the ancestral condition. It’s mainly speculation on my part, though. I’m not sure if my hypothesis holds water. And I don’t know which Rubus is more basal and which one is more derived.
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IC, I thought you where talking about Basal leaf structure. I do believe raspberries would be the more Basal Rubus, but when it comes to strawberries your likely going to want to use Alpine Fragaria Vesca which is diploid everything commercial are mutant hybrids.
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These are my alpines, Reine des Vallees. A little ragged under my abuse and neglect, but tough little plants who’ve handled the local tropics like champs! Hot dry or wet weather, full sun in hot black containers, they keep growing without fuss.
And these are the Caroline Raspberries, who’ve also adapted decently well to the heat. The older canes look a bit ragged, but the new growth looks fresh and nice. I’m planning on finally putting them into the ground soon, and I hope they’ll be even more vigorous after that.
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No polars for me this year, Insufficient pollination. Despite several wild blackberries growing into my yard, the polar set only 4-5 drupelets each.
This years Primocane is looking quite nice at least.
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I found some more diploid strawberries for you. keep an eye on this guys auction
and dont forget GRIN provides strawberry stock.
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While I’m at it. The Snowbanks I purchased from bakerscreak (rareseeds.com) have failed to grow. They are looking strong but have not put on significant new growth. Both are showing yellow veiny leaves one worse then the other. One review on the website indicates i’m not the only one seeing this issue. Is that Rubus bushy virus?
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So does Polar need a pollinator or was it poor pollination weather ? I know most blackberries self pollinate but there are exceptions .
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Nothing I read says it should not have self pollinated, I thought my conditions where good but I guese they where not.
Edit: the wild blackberries invaliding my future raspberry area look the same. lots of insuffeciely pollenated berries.
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Hi! This albino blackberry is Rubus leucodermis var Alba?
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It’s patented as Rubus Fruticose which means we didn’t care. It’s has all the appearances of Rubus allegheniensis growing and looking just like the wild BB’s in my back yard. It was discovered as a wild mutation in Southern Illinois
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The one i was talking is from Oregon and have thorns…
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Luisport I would have to say that picture is of yellow raspberry due to the hollow core .
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