Blackberry Bliss

My thornless blackberry bush kicked into high gear this year, delivering plenty of these:

Part of my first picking became blackberry syrup. I found an easy recipe on Allrecipes.com that I tried. It's delicious! I juiced all of my berries and got about three quarts of blackberry juice. The juice so dark that sunlight doesn't penetrate it. With the next batch I think I might try a recipe that leaves more of the berry somehow, without the seeds. I feel a bit sad throwing out the berry pulp, but I don't know what else to do with it once the juice has been extracted.

Pre-extraction. They smelled so sweet!

Blackberry Syrup

4 Cups blackberry juice
4 Cups white sugar
pectin (optional)

Directions
1. Mix the blackberry juice and sugar and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for 2 minutes. Skim off foam. Pour into hot sterile jars or bottles.
2. This makes a thin syrup (like true maple syrup). If you want it slightly thicker, you can add a small amount of powdered pectin (less than half a 2-ounce box) to the cold syrup and sugar mixture. I tried a couple of teaspoons and it thickened it just enough for my taste. 

Harriet O'Neal, the original poster of this particular recipe, suggests that if you are not going to use the syrup right away that you can put the syrup in sterile jars within 1/4 inch of the lid and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath canner. I didn't try that, but put the quart and a half of finished syrup in my fridge. I may try another batch and process it for longer keeping in my food storage.