Jam Session

We have sweet and savory jams and lots of them. They will not last the whole winter, but they taste so much better than anything shop bought - of-course - and I love knowing where the ingredients come from and what's in the jam. The sweet jams consisted of just berries, sugar and nothing else. We collected redcurrants, blackcurrants and raspberries from a local pick-your-own farm. So 'technically speaking' this is not a purely allotment post. But then again, the local farm is also part of our country experience so we added it! We did not have enough raspberries to make jam.

Picking berries is a fantastic day out - fresh air and nobody weighed us before and after - so, lot's of fresh berries to eat while you do it. Yes, we did pay for the berries in the baskets, so we are not complete crooks! ;)

First of all, we tried to eat as many fresh berries as possible: porridge, breakfast cereal and a more indulgent version - with ice-cream.

The most tedious part is separating berries form the stems and picking of any debris - leaves, freeloading bugs, squished ugly berries. The trick with redcurrants is to give them a slight twist on the stem before pulling and they leave the stalk behind!


After berries are rinsed and lightly dried (place a kitchen towel at the bottom of a bowl, to absorb most of the moisture) - weight the berries, place them in a pot - boil and add sugar. Most recipes require 1:1 ratio berries to sugar, but I always use 2:1 (less sugar) and, if I know the jam will go in the fridge and will be consumed within a month - even less. However, if you like things sweet 1:1 does the trick. Blackcurrants can be boiled with standard sugar, however raspberries, strawberries and similar really benefit from preserving sugar that has added pectin.

It is very important to have the jam jars sterile. Nigella Lawson claims that a hot wash in dishwasher does the trick, but we don't have a dishwasher anyway, so I wash jars and lids with soap and very hot water (if you don't, the jars can break in the oven) and dry the jars in hot oven that is preheated to 100C or thereabout.

When the berries have dissolved or almost, you need to check if the jam will set. Place a spoonful of jam on a cold plate and after a few seconds move the jam across the plate - if it slight;y wrinkles - it's done. Pour jam in the jars and cover with the trio of waxy paper disk, transparent film circle and rubber band - all come together in the jam making kits in culinary shops and now even craft shops. Place the lid tight and wait for the lid to pop in as the jam cools - if the lid does not pop in, it means that it is not an air-tight seal and you should eat that jam faster and refrigerate it. So here, I am sure I missed something out, but it is not a complicated process and can easily be done in an hour or so!