Jammin'

Mixed fruits from the garden - grape, raspberry, strawberry - sucking in the sugar . . .

Sweet!

Rhubarb to Jam

With fresh rhubarb growing in the garden - and only one jar of rhubarb and ginger jam in store - time to use up last year's rhubarb from the freezer.








Cue jam making . . .

. . . and jam!

Jammy!

Got back from the cruise to find that the fruit cage had performed particularly well in our absence - had a freezer full of gooseberries, plus a load still on the bushes, and the strawberries were still generating a solid harvest.

Since we couldn't eat it all, my thoughts turned to jam, and I was soon chopping and boiling up the makings of 'strawberry and gooseberry' jam, and angsting over the 'set' (as usual).

The gooseberry curd was an even more fraught experience, pulping the gooseberries, straining out the skins and pips, then simmering the mix, trying to get it to just the 'right' temperature.  

Had to resort to the microwave in the end, which worked an absolute treat - will have to remember that for the future! - but got there in the end . . .

Filling the Freezer

Spent much of the Bank Holiday weekend processing more garden produce!  Finally pulled the last of the onions / shallots - not an impressive crop I'm afraid - hopefully the leeks will do a little better.  Also dug up the last of the potatoes in the main vegetable plot.





Made up some more tomato pots, and used some of the glut of cooking apples we'd been provided with to make up some apple and chilli jelly.




The rest of the apples are chopped and in the freezer, along with a rather large bag of chopped courgettes, and 5lb of damsons that someone had given us.  Damson brandy anyone?

I Said There'd Be Jam!

We've been harvesting strawberries now for nearly two weeks, and as predicted last year we reached the point where it was time to make jam . . .  there's nothing quite like the smell of strawberries bubbling away on the road to jamness.  

Added a sachet of pectin to the mix this time, which made the whole process much less angst ridden, although do rather feel like I cheated.  The mix only made four jars, but expect there'll be another jam-making session in the offing in due course!

Apart from the strawberries, we've also got gooseberries that are nearly ready, and raspberries that should yield quite a crop themselves in due course.  

We picked the first of the blackcurrants today though - again there'll be a few more to follow, but probably not enough for jam this year!

Update: 6th July 2010
More strawberries - four more pots of jam!

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

The rhubarb success story has continued - raising the question of what to do with it all!

As mentioned in an earlier post we thought we'd give rhubarb and ginger jam a try - the last couple of hours or so have therefore been spent chopping rhubarb and crystallised ginger, boiling it all up, and decanting into jars.

As ever with my jam making efforts this was rather a fraught process, requiring much boiling, testing, adding of more sugar, reboiling, etc.

In years to come (if we ever want to remember!) I'll be able to say that while the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition were taking up power under David Cameron, I was boiling jam! Eventually had enough of the continual boiling, and added a sachet of pectin, which soon did the trick . . .

Jammy

A rather dismal bank holiday weekend - managed to catch up with some household tasks though - including turning the two tubs of blackcurrants in the freezer into jam, and producing another load of tomato sauce: