Berries and Fruit

Hello Friends!

The seasons slowly turn, whether or not the weather is keeping up, and high summer approaches, so does the season of berries and fruits that add variety to our harvest and table.

What is your favourite summer berry?  I can honestly say I always think that strawberries are my favourite berry, until I pop the first fresh raspberry in my mouth, and then my heart sings with my truth: that fresh picked, sun ripened, still warm from the vine raspberries are truly my favourite berry.

I had planted four varieties, but find I have two that I prefer so much more than the other two that I am going to focus on those and remove the others.  Usually over the summer months I pick more than enough to have a serving of fresh berries almost daily as a healthy snack, and plenty to freeze as well for making raspberry jam which brings warm memories of summer months to the kitchen during the long, dark winter.  This year, I am hoping preserving sugar will become available; at the moment I can get granulated but no sign of preserving sugar on the shelves.  Maybe I am looking too early?  However, I am making sure to pick the berries for jam while still slightly under ripe, for they have higher levels of pectin and are better for setting jam and jelly if you cannot get preserving sugar.  I think slightly under ripe berries also help offset the sweetness of the sugar.

I don't think I will pick many blackcurrants this year for the crop is tiny.  They were Dad's favourite but I have not the patience to pick, then top and tail hundreds upon hundreds of tiny, Vitamin C laden juicy jewels!  He picked them by the bowlful each evening.  My dear mother was constantly making him his favourite blackcurrant pie, of which he never tired and we always froze enough to make him a pie for his late Autumn birthday, instead of a cake {or more often as well as a birthday cake!}

The loganberry, which as we know in my garden may be a Tay berry, is yielding a small crop and I will definitely have enough to make a bottle of flavoured gin, with some to put in a Jumbleberry Jam, which is different every time I make it, and very delicious on toasted home made bread, or in a bowl of slow cooked porridge.

I love loganberry in my Jumbleberry Jam, it's acidic kick tempers the sweetness, and I like that sharpness it imparts to the mixed berries.

Something is wrong with the apples this year.  Despite copious watering during April, which was very dry indeed, as was May, all is not well and I doubt I will see much of a crop at all.  Usually, they seem to auto thin themselves in June, saving me the job, but this year everything stayed put, then I simply forgot, or shall we say due to inclement weather I didn't do it.  So, now, I have clusters of miniature fruit that will probably come to nothing, and a few that have thinned out to two apples per station {as they should be} but even those are of no size at all, still smaller than a tennis ball and already ripening so won't grow any more.  Sad, but true. No apple harvest this year.

The wild blackberry vines, however, are doing most splendidly, and I should see a bumper pick starting in a few weeks.  I love having real wild blackberries on my property, but the vines are thuggish and are taking over.  For several years now they have slowly encroached upon the land that once belonged to them before my late father cleared the ground to build the cottage.  Every year, they have reclaimed a little more, and every year three things happen.

First, I vow to clear them and reclaim the land for vegetables;
Second, I fall down on the job and curse my own ineptitude;
Third, I forget one and two, and joyfully rejoice in early to mid Autumn when I am harvesting the delicious little jewels of nature's fruitiness and bounty to make pies, crumbles and jellies.

Lots of vines; lots of flower buds; lots of flowers; and lots of fruits swelling ready to ripen!

The second flush of strawberries is now only days away I am sure.  Berries are forming, swelling and ripening, and once this rather wintry weather passes and summer returns, I know they will do their very best to catch up then.

Weather wise, we have sat under a blanket of grey, misty murk for what now seems an eternity.  I cannot comprehend that in July I still have the heating on.  It rains from time to time, sometimes heavy, so no need to water for now.  The wind have blown, heartlessly and without relent, and the rose petals now carpet the lawn, and many beautiful plants have suffered, such as the Lucifer crocosmia and Ladies Mantel.  Let us hope that by our next visit the weather will improve, maybe it is already starting to.  They will recover, I am sure, for Nature has a way of bouncing back.

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well
Deborah xoxo

Raspberry Jam

Gentle Reader ~~~ raspberries galore means one of my most favourite jams is being made ~ the first batch of the season ~ in my kitchen this morning.

Usually, I pick small quantities of berries each morning and freeze them in small batches to make jam in the winter months ~~ this is a lovely thing to do during the dark, cold days of winter, when the winds are howling around the corners of my cottage, and the sun struggles to lift it's head out of bed, for it fills the cottage with the fragrant scents of summer berries and warmth, and gives something extra delicious to spread on toast or to fill a Victoria sponge.

I came to preserving several years ago when five courgette plants gave an incredible yield of fruits and that is when I found out how many people do not actually like courgettes {knock me down with a feather! I love courgettes!} and I could not give them away for love nor money.  I reckon that people who don't like courgettes have not had them properly cooked ~ they have had them as a watery mess either boiled {as I have seen some folks do, and I would not like them either} or in a badly made ratatouille {of which I ate my share in the 1980's} Now, don't get me wrong, I love ratatouille, but I like it a certain way and not full of overcooked, mushy vegetables.  More on that another time.  So, what to do with a glut of courgettes ~ even someone with my love of this fruit can only eat so many and it did not take long for my salad box to be overflowing.

Then, as serendipity would have it, I stumbled across a National Trust book that had a recipe for "Polesden Lacey's Courgette Chutney"  I'd never thought of preserving them, to be honest I thought there was a mystery beyond my ken for preserving.  The recipe looked easy enough, so I acquired a copy and off to my kitchen I went ~~ within a few hours I had made my first ever batch of chutney, my first ever attempt at making anything preserved at all.  I was over my mental block!  I put up jar upon jar upon jar that Autumn and suddenly I had no room in my kitchen store cupboards for anything else so I started, with a little trepidation, to give jars away.  I was anxious because I was giving this courgette chutney to people who did not like courgettes, and it was my first batch so it was up for judgement too!  To my immense relief everyone loved it!  Since then, it has become a big hit in my home made Christmas hampers that I give to friends and relatives too.  The rest as they say, is history.

These days, I make chutneys, pickles, jams, jellies, and all sorts of preserves.  My most favourite things to make are, naturally, preserving with things I grow myself.  I've invested in a proper preserving pan, I got mine from Lakeland Ltd, and they have a good range of preserving equipment.  Of course, other sources for supplies are available!

My recipe for jam is simple, and it is roughly the same whatever fruit I am using.  For every one pound of fruit use one pound of sugar.  How simple is that?

Here is my recipe for Raspberry Jam ~~

3lb of freshly picked, slightly under~ripe raspberries

3lb of sugar {I use preserving sugar which has added pectin to aid the setting}

You will need a preserving pan or large heavy bottomed saucepan, baking tray, sugar thermometer, ladle, wide mouth metal funnel {optional} sterilised jam jars and lids, wax paper lids {optional}, and labels.

•  Pick the fruit over to remove any hulls and debris.  Place in a preserving pan and warm very gently to release the juices and cook the fruit ~ about 20 minutes.  

• While this is happening, warm the sugar on a shallow tray in a low oven {this helps speed up the cooking time and ~hopefully~ stops the fruit breaking down so the jam has pieces of fruit in it}

• Add the warmed sugar to the cooked fruit and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a rapid boil and boil until 'setting point' is reached.  I use a jam thermometer with the setting marked.

• While the jam is reaching setting point, wash your jars and lids in warm, soapy water, rinse well and dry, and place on a baking tray in a low oven to sterilise the jars and lids.

• When the jam is ready, allow to cool slightly before carefully ladling into the sterilised jars.  A wide mouth metal funnel is very useful for this.  Place a waxed paper disk {if using} on top of the hot jam to help create an airtight seal.  Place the lid on and lightly screw down, tightening fully when the jars of jam are cool enough to handle.

Oh, and it is a good idea to have a few spare plates on hand to catch all the drippy bits!  You can eat these later, on fresh, crusty bread ~ cook's perks!

• Label with the date and store in a cool, dry place.  Jam can be eaten immediately, but is better after about a month to mature, and keeps for a year, or longer {it never lasts that long in this cottage}

As this batch is not for gifting, I used ordinary, recycled jam jars, but if giving as gifts use pretty or unusual jars, if you have them, and make hand~written labels and cloth covers for the lids and tie using pretty ribbon, raffia, or twine.

Remember ~~~ 

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~