So with over a pound of blackberries, one child who doesn’t like them and one husband who isn’t keen, I decided to attempt to make jam. I have never made it before, so sought out a recipe from the BBC website.
They have a pretty good collection of recipes, and you can search the site using just a couple of random ingredients as a starting point. Anyway, they had a recipe for bramble jelly, so I began. The boiling of the fruit was easy. I added a couple of apples and lemon juice to thicken the jam as per the instructions, then had to boil a tea towel and suspend it over a saucepan to strain the mixture of pips – that was left over night.
This morning I boiled it up again, added the sugar, boiled it some more and poured it into jars. That’s it, jam made. Both children tried some when it had cooled down and declared it yummy. Am feeling rather proud of my first jam making attempt, and it is nice to think that the whole family had a hand in making it.
Ben has now decided he wants to go fruit picking again, and says we should sell the jam. Sadly I don’t think Smith’s Jams are set to go public yet, but will keep you posted.