They wont grow berries till next year. This year they are just growing canes.
This is a lot good looking berries you have for one day. A good problem to have though
Bob, go to ebay and buy a ‘Maslin’ pot. It is a european 6 quart jam pot. They are fabulous and have measurements imprinted into the inside of the pot! Works like a charm.
Lizzy - I live in Berkeley and am successfully growing black mission figs. I think we can grow most varieties of fig in our area.
I’ll check those out. Right now I’m using an 11.5 quart Granite Ware preserving canner.
They can definitely take a bit of shade, though I think they will produce better with a decent amount of sun. All mine get at least a half days worth of sun and probably a bit more.
One way to make sure it is thick enough is to keep boiling it until it passes the frozen plate test. Basically, keep a small plate in the freezer and put a bit of hot jam on it from the pot. I put it back in the freezer for 30 seconds, then take it out and touch it. If it wrinkles then it is ready. If it still flows, then it needs more boiling.
Minaj did better for me this year, with 1.5 quarts. But I think Consort is the real winner if jam making is the goal. The largest bush (planted the same season as the Minaj) produced 4.25 quarts, with 2 smaller ones (started from cuttings when the big Consort was planted) produced just under 3 quarts.
Minaj may taste better fresh, but I haven’t found a black current yet that I don’t find horrid. Once turned into jelly/jam it is divine.
I think you’ll get better results if you do it in a pot and keep them watered and mostly shaded. Another option is that I can just send you a bunch of cuttings (need to prune anyways…) and the low yield can still give you enough 
I would appreciate any you can spare. I will do the pot method next time.
Bob and canner is just as its name a canner. For processing jars not making jam; the metal is too thin. The Maslin is the way to go.
Maslin is definitely the standard, but I’m a big fan of super heavy frying pans. If you already have some of them you can save on the cost. As long as the pan is thick enough - you want it thick all over and not just the bottom, otherwise the sides will burn badly.
Cherry jam is in my near future - I have a bunch of sour cherries nobody has used and its now or never.
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Ok I went out and finished picking what I didn’t pick yesterday. I getting so many ripe ones that I cant pick all the brambles in one setting. It’s becoming a vicious circle. My back says yea that they are almost all done! Then the reds will start.
My first apple of the year - Lodi - harvested today.
I let my son pick it.
Shared it with the wife and kid.
A real celebration:
This is why I grow fruit. What a special feeling!
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Nice pictures Matt. My daughters still remember all the apples and pears that I peeled for them when they were growing up and he will also. I bought a basket of apples about a week ago that looked just like yours and I thought they were ginger gold but now I’m thinking they were Lodi. Tart with only a hint of sweet. Great pictures, Bill
Thanks, Bill.
Today, we also had some more Bluecrop blueberries, and these delicious black raspberries:
So humid today-- really brutal. But the plants are growing like crazy. Some of my grafts have made a lot of progress. And the figs are putting out more new growth.
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Matt, great looking wife and son. Fruit lovers, too. They look like real keepers.
@Auburn I have a 25 yo who well remembers having me peel her grapes for her.
Tried to get me to do it the other week, too. I told her I think she’s ready to handle that on her own now. 
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I had no idea that thin metal was a problem, as long as it was sturdy enough, as the heat transfer properties of metal are far better than water. But, since two very experienced jammers are of the same opinion, I feel like I’ve gotta try it.
The 11.5q canner has been good for cooking corn on the cob (nice and roomy) and has done OK for jam when I didn’t overload it. But, now I want to see what a good jam pot can do. Would this one be a good one? It has good reviews and is way cheaper than a lot of the other Maslin pots, one of which was almost $200.
I made 11 jars (12 oz) two weekends ago. It took me and my older daughter a long time to pit the cherries. And there was quite a bit of mess- it’s good my wife wasn’t home to see it. Each cherry was pretty quick, as we didn’t worry about making it pretty (just grab it with a thumbnail and rip it open), but there are so many of them. Can you cook it without pitting and make jelly instead by straining the pits out, or do you release poisons from the pits?
We have a Victorio food strainer plus the assorted optional strainers that worked great for blackberries. It was purchased through Amazon. Son made blackberry ice cream last weekend and it was seedless after putting them through the strainer. It’s manual, but quick and easy. The attachments contain a grape spiral that would probably work for eliminating the cherry seeds and skins.
We put the “reject” pile through a second time in order to press out more pulp.
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@Matt_in_Maryland you live in Maryland and your son is wearing a Phillies throwback?
oi vey
go Mets!
Great pictures matt, and what a nice apple! The whole other side of growing fruit.
@MuddyMess_8a That strainer looks like a good tool to have.
I was recently reading one of my wife’s foodie magazines and apparently there is a famous French dish where you cook the cherries in the pits. The pits are supposed to add a cinnamon-like flavor. This is sweet cherries. The fact that there is a recipe with it makes me think it can’t be too bad. Hey I found the magazine - its called cherry clafouti. In this dish you just keep the pits in, its like those olives in the salad with pits in them.
Anyway I’m sure its fine to cook first. I’m not sure it would be a lot easier to get the pits out though. Many years ago I used a crank cherry pitter that worked like a charm, you were pitting as fast as you could turn the crank. I saw one at a flea market recently and bought it, but it doesn’t work well like the one I used to use.
My wife has her own method. She decided to cook the cherries herself yesterday, she just puts a sheet of wax paper or similar over a sided cookie sheet filled with them and crushes. Then the seeds are easier to just grab. This seems similar to what cooking would do, but without the need to cool.