BOTTLING SUMMER: MAKING WILD BERRY JAM

Our years of ranching in the arid Sand Hills of Saskatchewan gave me a deep appreciation for the scant wild fruits of summer—Saskatoon berries for pie, chokecherries for jelly—and taught me how to prepare for the onslaught of winter. It’s a pioneer skill lost to today’s city populace and a habit carried along when we moved to our present home. Our Alberta acreage on a creek bottom flourishes with bushes of native berries and currants.

Preserving fruit is an Elkink family affair; together we belt on buckets and pick the bushes bare. This month it was gooseberries—heavy and purple-black and bursting with juice. Sorting through and discarding leaves and twigs left us with 16 cups of sun-warmed fruit (and innumerable gouges from the nasty thorns).

We divided the berries in half and dumped 8 cups into a copper pot with 2 cups of water and brought to a boil, uncovered, then simmered for about 15 minutes till soft. We measured the pulp (5 cups) and slowly added a cup of sugar for each cup of pulp, as well as 1 box of Certo (though gooseberries have enough natural pectin on their own that we might well have left it off).

We returned the pot to the heat and boiled till thick (about 8 minutes), then carefully poured the preserves into hot, sterilized jars (which I’d just run through the dishwasher). We wiped the rims of the jars to ensure a good seal, then placed hot (but not boiled) self-sealing lids onto the half-pint jars—19 in total, between the two batches—screwing on the cap rings and setting them carefully on a tea-towel to cool, each one snapping loudly as the vacuum formed.

I can’t wait to pop open a jar when winter comes, and slather jam atop crusty bread warm from the oven. Leave a comment if you want my whole wheat bread recipe!