Weekend work

What a wild week of weather it has been - Cyclone Yasi in Northern Queensland and the icy conditions across North America, even our blazing hot days have been interspersed with rain storms.  Late on Thursday afternoon when we were going home a storm suddenly blew in.  As we were driving along a road not far from home we saw branches ripped off trees and the rain was so heavy the traffic slowed to a crawl.  The next morning when we drove back along that road we saw several trees had been pulled up.  Today the heat has been replaced by a pleasant (and welcome!) cool change.

Yesterday afternoon we made more tomato sauce.  We only used Sunny Boy tomatoes, which are yellow when ripe, so we were somewhat flummoxed when the sauce turned red...

Six jars of sauce this time (we used more tomatoes than last time).  But why is it red??

  

  Yesterday morning we went blackberry picking again - blackberry season is in full swing and for the first time we filled all of our containers, and it only took a little over an hour to do it.  2.05kg

Today we used 1kg of the blackberries to make blackberry and apple jam.  My husband was busy with other chores, so I was left in charge - sadly baking is the only thing I can successfully do in the kitchen and I overcooked this jam (like I have done with the other jam I've made).  It is VERY thick.  I'm not sure what bread or scone will be sturdy enough not to crumble if we try to spread this.  It tastes great though!