Canning Local Goods

My latest resourceful endeavor is finding local food and processing it. We happen to live in the Pacific Northwest where blackberries are wonderfully abundant and most importantly, FREE!  Everyday, on our family walk, we plan our route to include a stop at a local blackberry bramble.  We usually come home with about a gallon each day.  On returning home I rinse and freeze the berries on a cookie sheet to keep them from freezing into mushed clumps. Then I put them in ziplock bags and store them in the freezer until I have enough to make jam. The rest I keep frozen till the middle of winter when your body yearns for a comforting homemade blackberry cobbler. (You really don't appreciate cobbler in the summer, even though that's when the berries are ripe and abundant) So far I have canned a few quarts and about a dozen pints of jam. Yum . Yum.  On these walks my eyes and mind wander through people's yards where apple, plum, and pear trees are heavy with fruit that is starting to drop to the ground. I try to work up the courage to knock on their doors to see if they are planning on collecting them and then finally give in after listening to my children nag me to. They usually are very happy to have someone pick the fruit so that it doesn't go to waste. So now I also have six jars of plum sauce that would be great to dip  pot stickers or egg rolls into.  Next, that huge apple tree down the street. Maybe I could make apple butter and can apples for making apple pie for Thanksgiving.