Monday 22 August 2011

feeling jammie..

..and jelly.
 the jewel garden
 glorious ingredients
 juicy brambles
 straining stewed fruit to make jelly.
note. 
gingham is not a necessity..muslin is fine
(if you have muslin)
 the wrinkle test and a blackberry stained finger.
 *apron debenhams clearance 
(more to follow)
So are you feeling jammie?
Raspberry jam is probably the easiest place to start as generally I have found raspberry jam easy to set.
The recipe I used is here.

Given the choice jelly will always come out tops for me.
There are four stages of jelly making.
1. stew the fruit gentle to release the juice,
with 1 pint of water for every 4lb of fruit.
2. strain the juice
(the correct method is to use a jelly bag and leave it to drip over night)
who's got time to waste doing that.
You are also not meant to squeeze the bag, 
because it makes for cloudy jelly.
Well I am a squeezer it's a good stress relief!
3. gentle dissolve 1lb of sugar/1 pint of liquid
4. boil rapidly stirring all the while.


I have found that different fruits take longer to set.
It's always an unknown, as fruit varies from day to day,
I have made runny jams and toffee jellies before.
It can be hit and miss,
but so worth it even just for the wonderful aromas filling the house.

There are a multitude of recipes online.
which is why I have River Cottages Pam Corbin
Preserves book on my wishlist.

Happy Jamday!

13 comments:

andamento said...

Oooh yummy. The brambles here are not nearly ripe yet and I'm on my last jar of jelly from 2010.

Simone said...

A really lovely post. You make jam making look so modern especially with the jam labels - fantastic! I think the apron is great too but I would have it blackberry stained in no time! My jam usually ends up over set but I think you have inspired me enough to have another go. x

{Love, Love, Love} said...

Your jam looks simply divine :)

Elderberry-Rob said...

Yum - I just made some blackberry jam - might try the jelly too - thanks for recipe. Bettyx

Mary said...

Yummy! Now I am feeling hungry!

Susan said...

Your beautiful photos have my almost tasting the jam and jelly from here! YUM-MY!!!!

Nicky said...

I think we might have eaten most of our brambles - but maybe we'll have enough plums....!

millefeuilles said...

What a divine post! Those jam jars look like the precious stones in Aladdin's cave (one of my childhood fantasies).

Jam making fasinates me. We have a lady, Chrstine Ferber, here in France who's nickname is La Fée des Confitures - the Jam Fairy - and her book is a bible to me. She has some amazing jam recipes; pear with vanilla, carrot and cinnamon, quince with orange and cardamon, raspberry with apple and rose petals... need I go on?

Stephanie

Beth of The Linen Cat said...

Oh I LOVE a bit of jam and jelly making, I've grown medlars this year to make some fruit cheese. I have the RC Preserves book and highly recommend it, especially for hedgerow recipes. Beth/The Linen Catx

Cathy at PotterJotter said...

I am definitely feeling jammy - can you send me some please!

Serenata said...

Wonderful, thanks for the recipe. Hoping to get some fruits this weekend for some jam making.

Also want to start thinking about preparing a winter garden... How is it, that this thought is creeping into my head?!

Lisa said...

Fab photography and I love the apron!
Lisa x

silverpebble said...

Oof delicious, both post and jam.