Seedy

I am a huge, huge fan of most types of jellies and jams. (The lone exception is plain grape jelly. It does nothing for me.) They taste good and they come in cute packages. So imagine my disappointment today when I went to the store and couldn't find the one type of jelly I wanted: blackberry with seeds.

When I was little, my grandfather (dad's side) had a small number of culinary talents, but what he did, he did very, very well. He caught and cooked crabs, and he made homemade blackberry jelly (I believe the blackberries came from his backyard, but I could just be romanticizing the story.)

So I grew up eating blackberry jelly with seeds (he wasn't exactly the de-seeding type.) As a result, that is exactly how I like it. Smooth blackberry jelly just doesn't taste right. Actually, smooth jelly of any kind seems weird and synthetic to me, which might explain the aversion to grape.

Anyway, all I wanted to buy today was a little old-fashioned Waskom blackberry jelly. But no. I stood in the jelly aisle and counted nearly 70 different types of jelly (OK, I counted to 40 and estimated from there - people were looking at me funny). And probably 10 different seedless blackberries. But not one with seeds.

I don't think I'm overreacting to take this as an affront to my family. Clearly, jelly-makers have no respect for history or tradition. So disappointing.