Due to a series of unforeseen events, I have found myself on vacation for the first 2 1/2 weeks of July.

Yeah me!

Basically, because of this global pandemic, everything was canceled and I didn’t burn any of my planned vacation hours. I didn’t take any time off for my youngest daughter’s dance competitions, there wasn’t any used time for my oldest daughter’s lacrosse season, no spring break, no graduation festivities, didn’t even get to take our planned trip overseas. As a result, I found myself maxed out on vacation and comp time and staring at a “use it or lose it” scenario. I know, rough life, right?

I’ve been spending a lot of time tending to the garden, going to the pool (half capacity), and doing stuff around the house. In fact, this is the first time I’ve fired up the laptop since July 1. So what’s a guy to do… well on July 6, I found myself 30-45 minutes away from the house at a farm picking raspberries!

In fact, I picked 4 freakin’ pounds of raspberries!

I really need to find some land and grow a lot more of my own food… [sigh. Get it together, Dave… if you head down this path you’ll only frustrate yourself and start airing some dirty laundry.]

Anyhoo, I picked all of these raspberries because my youngest asked me to make some more of my raspberry preserves. How can a dad say no to that?

The last batch I made was overly complicated and incredibly messy. (I tried to find the images, but alas, I cannot seem to locate them.) This time around, I went with two ingredients and a lot of stirring:

• 4 lbs Fresh Red Raspberries

• 8 C Sugar

That’s it! The recipe in the Blue Book Guide to Preserving was super simple. I highly recommend it.

After getting it to a boil and up to the right temperature for the right amount of time, I canned it all using a water bath. Pretty straight forward.

I would recommend that you find a candy thermometer or one similar to those used in a turkey fryer. No sense in burning yourself using a shorter meat thermometer.

All in all, it was easy and I made zero mess this time around.