Jamming in June

 One of the things I love about summer and autumn is the abundance of fruit available to preserve. 

Now in MY ideal world, I would grow it all myself, or at least forage it from the hedgerows, and then preserve it in lovely jams, jellies, sauces - you get the idea :o)

But the truth is, my own strawberry plants never produce enough strawberries to eat and turn into jam - it's one or the other. If you have read my garden blog you will know that my apple trees are not producing as I would like, so again, limited opportunity to preserve there. And so it goes on.

So when an opportunity presents itself, I grab it with both hands. This week there was a glut of strawberries left over from our church fete, I was given 4 punnets for which I was very grateful. 

So after church on Sunday, I set to making strawberry jam for my larder ;o)

It's quite easy really, you need equal amounts of fruit and jamming sugar - in my case 1 kg of each. I added about 20 ml of lemon juice to help it set.

On a low heat melt the sugar. Once it has melted properly, boil the mixture vigorously for 4 minutes, then do the saucer test (ice cold saucer from the freezer, pour a little of the mixture onto the saucer and leave for a few minutes. Now run your finger through the mixture, if it wrinkles you have reached setting point.) If the mixture does not wrinkle, boil for another 2 minutes and do saucer test again.

Skim the scum off the top and allow to cool for a little while before pouring into warm sterilised jars. If you pour straight into jars before cooling the fruit will all float to the top.

Place a waxed disc on the top and seal. 

Print off some pretty labels and cut some pretty fabric tops for your jars. This should keep on the shelf for 6 months.

Isn't that colour just beautiful? Just screams tasty summer - perfect to top some homemade scones, with a little cream too of course ;o)

Happy Homemaking to you today