It's berry season in California, and those of us who grew up in central California are lucky to know about--and LOVE--the rare olallieberry. A cross between a raspberry, blackberry and dewberry, this varietal is grown almost exclusively on the central California coast. Certain individuals unfortunate enough to have grown up in southern California (ha--and elsewhere!) had no clue what they were missing until tasting this awesome berry.
Not only did we taste, we picked them too. My sister met us one Saturday at Swanton Berry Farm, where we filled up a few flats, sampling as we went, for quality control purposes.
It didn't take us long to fill the flats, so we finished the afternoon relaxing and catching up at Highway One Brewing Company, which we highly recommend. (We liked all the beers we tasted...the French American War is especially interesting!)
I spent a decent part of Sunday turning the olallieberries into treats that would last us beyond berry season. We made individual olallieberry pies using a muffin tin, and we froze the extras...
And I made olallieberry jam!
This was my first attempt at jam, and I lucked out. It was fairly easy, it took me only an hour to make, and it's delicious.
I followed this recipe for the most part, decreasing the sugar a bit and replacing the lemon with lime, which should surprise no one. (Actually I was out of lemons!)
The pies and jam are both delicious--a nice way to stretch the berry season. Come visit!
More beautiful photos! Those goodies look delicious.
ReplyDeleteRtT
This was one of the BEST days! Great berries, beers, and sunshine. Can't wait to try the jam, it sounds awesome! Good idea with the lime juice!
ReplyDeleteThe pie and jam were (and still are) delicious! Which is good, because I'd say I generally want/need more pie in my life.
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