Whatever Wednesday: Straining Berries without a Berry Srainer

You know, sometimes I just don't have the right tools and have to emprovise.  I'm pretty sure that's where the expression Jimmy Rigged or Jerry Rigged comes from.  Which way do you say it?  My husband, from Idaho called it Jerry, I'm from Oklahoma and called it Jimmy.  Either way, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get a project finished.

My kiddos and their cousins were hoping to utilize their new snow cone/ice shaver machine and needed some syrup for the snow cones.  As I've said before, now that I don't live super close to a grocery store, I am a little lazy about heading into town for "necessary" items. So, my kids have to suffer through me just making do.

I knew I could make my own syrup for snow cones because my good friend, Svenja, over at svavvy.com, made some for us last winter.  So, I shuffled through the contents of our freezer and found some older blackberries.  Strawberries or raspberries would have been much more preferable, to everyone, but I had two bags of those blackberries and didn't think I'd use them for anything else.

Unfortunately, blackberries have gobs and gobs of seeds!  And I don't have one of these great tools:

My friend Chelsey comes from a family of amazing gardeners and home canning gurus! She let me use her photo from when they were making blackberry jelly in her home. Check out her fantastic photography on Facebook: Chelsey Cora Photography)

Since I don't own a berry separator myself, and since Chelsey and her family live far enough away to not borrow it, I had to instead just come  up with a way to get the lovely blackberry juice without it.  

Enter a small strainer and an even smaller glass bowl.  

Hey, it's a little more work, but it worked in a pinch!