black raspberries

last weekend, grandma happy stuff packed up some of her famous jam for us to take home. it’s well known that a jar of her strawberry jam would be lucky to survive the week if it were opened, but this last visit to her house was the first time i’d had a chance to taste any other flavor of jam. she had made a small batch of black raspberry jam and it was so yummy! the flavor took me right back to the summers right after college when i would sneak into the local woods (college-owned land, i think) and pick wild black raspberries. they taste so different than the red ones! my fingers would have tell-tale stains on them, but i’d have a bucket full of berries to freeze or eat on cereal or whatever. grandma told us that she had seen some black raspberry bushes when she stopped to buy a few things from a roadside produce stand. when she asked if they ever sold those berries, they asked her how many she would like when they got ripe. she ordered 4 quarts and they called her when they had been picked. she said, “i didn’t know that the berries were made of gold!” apparently, they were a bit more pricey than she had been anticipating, but they were so good! and you really don’t see the black raspberries as often as the red ones. and raspberries are so delicate! plus, as she pointed out, you don’t have to take out a pit or remove the stem or anything–it’s just pure fruit.

anyway, she was generous enough to send one of these jars of “gold jam” along with us and this evening i ate it with yogurt, blueberries, and peaches for my dessert. and oh, miss barbara, was that ever good.* i also enjoyed fresh corn on the cob and a cheese and tomato sandwich–with a very odd but delicious cheese–sharp cheddar blueberry! yum yum yummers. i love summers.

*this is a classic line from a story told by my great aunt when she wanted us to know how spoiled and privileged we were. it involved a family of children during the great depression when she was a schoolteacher, who enjoyed a glass of milk (shared by my aunt) mixed half and half with water so that they could all have a sip. there now, don’t you feel spoiled too?