All Jammed Up!

This weekend's berry picking resulted in a nice batch of blueberry lime jam, black raspberry jam and a big case of chigger bites. For those of you who spend most of your time in the safety of your own home or yard, you have no idea how treacherous berry-picking can be! There is a creature that lives in berry patches, and in the woods that can make your life absolutely miserable. That creature is a tiny, red mite, invisible to the naked eye known as a chigger. These nasty little fellows find their way up your arms and legs and settle into soft spots such as abdomen, groin, armpits and any other skin folds they can find. Then they take a chomp out of your skin and inject a digestive enzyme into your skin; producing an extremely itchy, swollen, red bite with a tiny blister in the middle. Let me tell you, if you think a mosquito bite is itchy....well, a chigger bite beats it hands down! For those of you who receive any of my jams....please appreciate them, as the process of obtaining the berries for them can be quite dangerous!!