28 Jars Of Jam Didn't Set! Argh!

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself the other morning, as before 9.30 in the morning I had made 28 jars of damson jam, my favourite jam. 

I was feeling a whole lot less pleased when I came back in later that day and saw that none of it had set! What a disaster! 

Japanese Wineberry Syrup

 We've left our "little" patch of Japanese Wineberries pretty much alone for the last 5 or so years and they've thrived on our neglect. 

So much so we can acutally harvest enough to do other things with rather than just eat fresh. 

Making Damson Jam/Jelly

Damson Jam is easily my favourite jam to eat. Sweet bit with a hint of sharpness! 

But with so many stones it can be a pain to make.

Here's a video of how we make it and make sure we have no stone in it!

Let me know what you think!

What's your favourite type of homemade jam?

Good Value To Grow

1.4kg of Organic raspberries picked from the fruit garden Friday morning.

Waitrose organic raspberries are £24 per kg so that's £33.60! 

Although I'd probably settle for their essential British range at £12.75 per kg making this little lot worth £17.85!

If I only had a small garden I'd concentrate on growing berries, tomatoes, salad leaves and courgettes I think. Heavy cropping and high value.

With these we ate some fresh for our lunch, then I made half a dozen jars of raspberry and apple jam (I think it works better with apple so it's not so "pippy").

And dehydrated a load to add to our breakfast, cakes and cookies. These are pretty intense if you have them straight out of the jar! 

Hopefully I'll pick a load more this week as well.

What would you do with a glut of raspberries?

Chilli Apple Chutney & Raspberry Jam

It's been a couple of very wet days here and to make matters worse the little one has been under the weather. Nothing serious but she's been a bit clingy and not wanting to go outside as much as normal. So while she's napped I've started to do a bit more preserving of this years harvest. 

The first thing I did was to make some jam, just 7 jars but it's a start. These was using some raspberries I'd picked earlier in the year and some of the left over cooking apples from canning the other day. Jam making is so simple and we eat much more of it than we used to! In fact we were down to just one jar left! See previous posts on raspberry jam here and here.

Then the next thing I made was some chilli and apple chutney. 

Although I froze a load of chillies I still had some on the plants that I didn't know what to do with and I fancied something spicy to make cheese sandwiches a bit more interesting over the winter. 

I need to let this mature for a month before I try it, so please don't copy the recipe yet but I'm going to write it here incase it's any good and then I'll be able to copy it at a later date.

600g chopped onions
1 kg chopped apples,
300ml of malt vinegar (I think cider vinegar would be better but I had none!)
12 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 teapoons of ground ginger
275g demerara sugar
Chillies - I used a few Sotch Bonnet, half a dozen cayennes, one Aji Crystal (really hot), and about eight cherry bombs.
Rasins - You can add these if you like but I hate them in chutney so never do!

I then cooked the onions until soft, added the apples and garlic and did the same before adding everything else and cooking until I could see the bottom of the pan when I pulled the spoon through.

Pour into sterilised jars and keep for a month before eating. I made five jars.

when I tried a bit the hotness was a growing sensation! Not too hot but it builds over time. Really looking forward to trying this when it's matured!

Anyone else made any chilli preserves lately?

Fig Jam

A glut of figs isn't something I've had to deal with before, but luckily we've got some friends in the village who have three huge fig bushes in front of their house and they don't really like figs!

 I picked a good sized bag full and then set about making some jam. I never bother looking at a recipe, just weigh the fruit once it's been topped and tailed and then add the same quantity of sugar (2 1/2lb of each). I did add a large cooking apple to give the mixture a bit of extra pectin to help it set and make it go a little further.

A Rev Wilks apple - a good early cooker

 

The finished bottles

It reached setting point pretty quick and wasn't a difficult jam to make. I have only tried a bit of it so far but its got a lovely subtle taste to it. It made five jars but it still helps keep our jam stocks up! 

Anyone else made jam with something that wasn't run-of-the-mill lately?

Sticky Bloody Labels!

Some labels just peal off after a short soak in warm water, leaving nothing behind.

Some, however, need to heated and reduced back down to sand and then remade into a glass jar to remove that sticky residue that's covering half the jar.

Is it wrong that with really tricky jars I just put them in recycling instead of getting frustrated trying to remove a label that's harder than an engraving? Either that or any secret tips or short cuts to success?

Raspberry And Apple Jam

I used to think making jam was a big deal.

Now it's something to be done on a Sunday night with a spare half hour! 

 Picked some of the last of the autumn raspberries on Saturday. They aren't as sweet as they were at the start of the season and they don't keep very long in the fridge. Making jam with them is a good way to preserve them and by adding a couple of apples to it makes it go a bit further (I also think that it helps with setting the jam as raspberries have low petin).

I just mixed equal quantities of fruit, weighed it, stewed it and then added just under the same amount of sugar before boiling to setting point.
This has to be one of my favorite jams, it just tastes so good!
Toying with the idea of selling my jam in the honest box - What is homemade jam worth and will people buy it?

English Peach Jam

I'm still working at the same house I was last last year and I remember I commented on how nice the peaches were last August. This year there seems to be even more in their greenhouse, but many have bugs in and so many are just falling to the floor when they're ripe.

 I decided to go and gather these up at the end of work on Thursday so I could try to make some peach jam. I've only ever tried it once in Thailand on our honeymoon and I remember it tasting pretty good!

 I had about 3lb of fruit by the time I took the stones out, cut away the bad and skinned them. Many were so ripe that the skins just fell away from the fruit. To this I added the same amount of sugar, the juice of a a lemon and an apple to help with the petin.
I boiled it rapidly for 30 minutes until it reached setting point, which was quicker than I thought it would be as I'd no idea if it would set or not.

The jam went a lovely golden colour and tastes very peachy (who'd of thought). I doubt I'll have many opportunities to make an English jam out of this semi exotic fruit. I think I'm going to have to build a wall just to have a peach tree growing against it now!

Raspberry Jam

We've not had a huge amount of anything out of the garden this year, but we've been having raspberries most nights now for quite some time. The Autumn fruiting raspberries are great, as they crop for so long but as the nights get colder and the days shorter they start to loose their sweetness a little bit, although I still think they're lovely - not so great for our baby to eat (who has her fathers sweet tooth I fear).

 With a bit of a glut from a few days of not picking, I decided to make some jam. Normally this time of year I have so many things to make jam out of I wouldn't know what to choose, but not this year! Still even though it's a small quantity of fruit (800g) I thought it would be worth it, especially as there's no damsons this year (for my favourite jam).

 Jam making is ridiculously easy.

• Weigh the fruit 
• Boil it 
• Add an equal quantity of sugar 
• Boil it some more until setting point is reached 
• Put it into jars
• Eat it

Only four jars made but we don't really eat much jam so it should last us a while. It tastes amazing and should soften the blow of not having any damson jam this year.