In A Jam!

Like bread-making the making of preserves, both fruit and vegetable, has been around for time immemorial.

To have the taste of summer in store to brighten the winter months is like a shaft of sunlight on a cold and gloomy day.

Cakes, crumbles and puddings always taste better when made with proper seasonal fruits. At the current moment strawberries, raspberries and plums are available relatively cheap on the market while later in the summer there will be blackberries and elderberries ripe for the picking on the hedgerows.

On a more practical level, it is a good way of sustaining the nutritious benefits and health requirements of what could otherwise be a haphazard diet throughout the year.

The images and recipes on this page are, I believe, from some when around the late thirties, early forties.

Having said that though, with modern transportation and supply lines, there are no real seasons anymore.

But there is always a certain personal satisfaction in having either a home-grown or self-picked fruit jam/jelly or preserve in the cupboard.

Pickled or chutnied vegetables can be a very tasty accompaniment to barbecued meats.

I seem to have missed off the end of the blackcurrant jam recipe and have been unable to locate the relevant follow-on page!

Nevertheless, I believe if the method for Loganberry Jam on the next page (right) is followed a good result will be obtained.

n.b. Some of the recipes are quite heavy on the quantity of ingredients but there is no reason why proportionally smaller quantities cannot be produced.