We absolutely have blackberries. In my neck of the woods, there's apparently 2 species of blackberries, one of which is highly invasive. I was going for walks about a month ago, specifically routed to pass by as many wild blackberries as possible, and they were very delicious!
I avoid anywhere with blackberries and raspberries when they're in season; that's where the bears tend to hang out, and I'm not super keen on surprising a bear when I'm out hiking.
Surprised a family of bears (sow and two yearlings) trying to walk out of my basement last week in the dark. That was not fun.
That sounds quite terrifying! I'm in a pretty urban environment, so I don't think there's any bears hanging out on my usual routes, only coyotes, but I will keep that in mind whenever I venture out of the city.
I'm pretty sure we have blackberry jam, but I'm not much of a jam person, so I can't say so from personal experience. Although if we have the berries, I can't see why we wouldn't also have the jam. Looks like blackcurrants is probably what you were thinking of, although they're technically available in the US now.
Yep, currants took a hit because they were a vector for a pine tree infection that rocked our logging industry and led to a ban on currant growing like a hundred years ago. Currants aren't banned at the national level anymore.
And even through that, we have had creme de cassis as a liqueur that a decently built out bar would have.
Grape jelly is more popular than jam, but we have both. Grape jelly is kind of an essential foodstuff in a lot of houses for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which is a common food for children.