Old-Fashioned Blackberry Jelly

One of the most compelling reasons to pick your own blackberries is that you can snag a few tart, just-underripe berries for making jelly without added commercial pectin. Store-bought or even prepicked produce is likely to be all ripe, sweet, and not as good for jelly making. The jelly’s even better made with wild berries, whose seeds add a touch of bitterness to the juice that I think pleasantly offsets the sweetness.