I love blackberry season. And oh boy, does Oregon love to grow blackberries! I fight them in my backyard all year, but once they’re ripe I have some favorite patches to raid and I will happily spend hours fighting through thorns to get buckets and buckets of them. (I’m a little sad there’s no blackberry emoji to put here.)
I love them, but even I can not eat that many blackberries before they go bad, so it’s time to preserve! First up is blackberry vodka. So yummy. So easy. So dangerous. I comes out like a slightly sweet blackberry bomb of a cordial. I like it with lime seltzer water and ice.
Recipe & instructions for blackberry vodka
Pick and rinse blackberries, discarding bad ones, leaves, bugs, etc
Take a clean 1 quart canning jar (or similar) and add:
- Rinsed blackberries to about 3/4 of the way to the top. Just drop them in, don’t pack them down.
- 1/3 cup of sugar (adjust more or less to taste, but this is what I use)
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Fill to the top with vodka. Use the cheap stuff - you won’t be able to taste the difference later.
Screw on lid and shake to dissolve sugar
Leave on the counter or an accessible shelf for a few days so you can come back and shake to keep dissolving.
After a week or so you shouldn’t need to shake anyone.
Move jar(s) to a cool dark shelf and ignore for a few months. I usually try for 6 months, though I sometimes crack one early.
When done, open jar, strain through cheesecloth into a bottle. I reserve the blackberries, but you could toss them here.
Enjoy!
If booze isn’t your thing but you do have a sweet tooth 
, you may prefer the blackberry hot fudge. It is delicious over ice cream, but also straight out of the jar.
Recipe & instructions for blackberry hot fudge
Pick and rinse blackberries, discarding bad ones, leaves, bugs, etc
Put 2.5 - 3 lbs of blackberries in a saucepan with splash of water (to prevent scorching)
Heat over medium and squish with a masher until the blackberry skins break down (5 - 10 minutes)
Remove from heat. Strain through a sieve. Use a spatula or spoon to push through everything but the seeds - all that pulp is gold here.
Put juice & pulp in a saucepan with 1 cup of sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.
Whisk until smooth and heat until it simmers.
Lower the heat and add 12 oz of dark chocolate. Quality shows through here, so spring for the good stuff if you can.
Stir until smooth.
Remove from heat and let cool. If it’s not as thick as you wanted, return to heat and add more chocolate.
Pour into jars and either store in the fridge or process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.
Still have more? Let’s make jelly! I do jelly instead of jam with wild blackberries because the super huge seeds kind of ruin a nice piece of toast for me.
Also, if you made vodka and strained the blackberries out, I hold onto those and use them to make blackberry vodka jelly. Really excellent in jam cookies, waffles, mixed into yogurt… You boil away almost all the alcohol, and I can barely taste it in the final product. However, there is technically a bit of alcohol still in it, so I usually don’t have it for breakfast. 
Recipe & instructions for blackberry jelly
Pick and rinse blackberries, discarding bad ones, leaves, bugs, etc
Put blackberries in a saucepan with splash of water (to prevent scorching)
Heat over medium and squish with a masher until the blackberry skins break down (5 - 10 minutes)
Pour saucepan contents into a jelly bag and let drain
Measure 3 cups of juice and place in saucepan
Add 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 Tablespoons of low-sugar pectin
Bring to a boil that can’t be stirred down
Add 1 1/2 - 3 cups of sugar (I use 2 cups)
Return to boil
Do the spoon check or boil at 220 degrees for 1 minute
Spoon into jars and keep in the fridge or process 10 minutes in a water bath canner
Revel in your blackberry goodness until next summer!
