Strawberry Jam

I forgot to tell you about my jam!

I made strawberry jam with the first batch of berries we picked from the allotment.  

Unfortunately I didn't add enough lemon juice to the jam so it is very runny at the moment.  My mum found some remedies to sort out runny strawberry jam, so I will be having a go at thickening it up soon!

We picked about 10lbs of strawberries from the allotment! Our allotment neighbours even commented to Mr Plum that they thought we had the best patch on the site! Hmmm...I bet she pinched a couple! ha ha!

Our freezer is bursting with more strawbs ... I'm planning on making some more jam and some ice cream. Yummy!

Blackberry Jam

I didn't manage to pick many blackberries myself this year ... but luckily a friend of my parents kindly gave me a couple of pounds of berries! So I made a little bit of jam.

41+1

Today I have ...

Put my second £2 coin into my new money box ...

Made my little brother a birthday cake ... he is 30 tomorrow! He's popping round tonight for a curry (hurray! Mr Plum hates curry ... and I'm in desperate need of one!)

Picked some blackberries from the bottom of the garden ... only managed 1/2 a pound ... before being scared off by the wasps! I'm hoping that Mr Plum will pick me some more this evening. I need to make jam!

Admired 3 of my recently picked courgettes. Aren't they impressive? I think that the recent rain must have been very good for them!

Taken delivery of my new knitting book "Knitted Nursery", had a walk around the park and am now at home with my feet up watching old episodes of Friends while drinking tea and eating cake!

Blackberry Jam - the results!

I have just made my jam! Not sure how it will turn out - but smells lovely and fruity!

Blackberry Jam

Last weekend, me and Mr Plum scoured the hedgerows of Plumton-on-Stour for blackberries and sloes .... there was an abundance of fruit and we came away with 3kgs of berries and 2 kgs of sloes! The sloes are in the freezer (traditionally, you shouldn't pick the sloes until after the 'first frost' - freezing them is a bit of a cheat!) - I will probably defrost them tomorrow and get the sloe gin on the go.  Anyway, back to jam!

I have never made jam before - so am quite excited! I am using a recipe in my trusted Betty's cookbook - usual equal amounts of fruit and sugar.  I have also stocked up with jars from Ikea - not sure how much jam I will make!  In my head it will be enough to stock a farm shop and I will be able to give up work and live off the proceeds ... 

Next on the list of things to do is making green tomato chutney ....