Black raspberries ripen one a time per cluster. It's rare to find more than that, so the daily pickings are slim and to get them all, you have to keep going back. We pick twice a week or so until they're gone or until we have enough for jam.
We pick first thing in the morning, when it's cool and the dew is all over everything. It's wet work, fraught with thorns and spiderwebs, but the cat and the dog keep us company and we're often serenaded by one of our Yellow Breasted Chats. We see the occasional green snake twined around a cane. The daddy long legs love the berries as much as we do, but they often hide when we disturb the canes.
When the berries are fully ripe, they pull off easily. If one resists, then you know it's not ripe enough yet.
We make just plain black raspberry jam with them and guard each jar jealously so we can make these Raspberry White Chocolate Bars during the holidays. Worth every spiderweb and thorn!
Here's the link to Black Raspberry Jam - full sugar version with regular pectin.
Here's the link to the low sugar version of Black Raspberry Jam. [My favorite!]
For more jam recipes as easy as these, check out my ebook on the sidebar. A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin. Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog. Thank you!
