No blackberries today!

Sadly, this Autumn we did not had the chance to pick any blackberries. Dad chopped down all the easily accessible bushes (which always bore a lot of fruit), Daniel works all week, and then I work and play soccer on weekends. Mum went away and I didn't want to leave Nicholas asleep and alone in the house while I wandered around the property picking blackberries, plus the nice Autumn days have been few and far between. I also couldn't imagine carrying Nicholas on my back and walking around my parents very uneven property in the wet and cold, so it just didn't really happen.

I was afraid having kids would somehow impede on the things I enjoy doing, such as preserving fruit. In some ways it has and it hasn't. If I didn't have Nicholas I would have happily walked around picking blackberries alone and in the cold. It's been done before. But because I don't want to risk tripping, for instance, and hurting Nicholas, I just didn't bother. I've also found that before Nicholas it didn't matter if I stayed up late preserving. Now for obvious reasons I want to be in bed before 10pm, which means I have to be a lot more organised, something I am not particularly great at.

Thankfully, the Thermomix makes preserving super easy. I just put the fruit and sugar in, set the timer, turn it to the correct speed and off it goes. All I have to do at end is just pour the jam into the sterilised jars...so easy. So even though I am disappointed that I didn't get my hands on nay blackberries this year, when I saw a bunch of jamming figs going cheaply at the markets I couldn't pass up the offer.

So I got all the ingredients prepared:
Figs, sugar and lemon juice,
Put them into the Thermomix, set the timer and let it go.
When I returned, it was finished :).

I definitely I want to plant a fig tree this winter, but like the mulberry tree it can get huge, so I'm not quite sure if we have the room in our backyard for it. I guess we'll just have to find some!