Jam Tomorrow

Hello everyone and thank you all for your lovely comments last week - it is so nice to read them!

And a big welcome to my new followers! I shall look forward to visiting you at your blogs - I do love a new blog!

I still haven't managed to do much blog visiting yet, as last week ended up being pretty busy again and we had internet problems for two days too, so I hope to make it up this week and get around to visiting you all.

But one of the things I did manage to achieve last week is to make Strawberry Jam!

As we are on the cusp of autumn, I had assumed that once more I had failed miserably in the summer jam making until a friend phoned and said lets go fruit picking, they still have plenty of strawberries for picking at a nearby fruit farm.

So off we went one warm morning last week, and managed to pick a trayful each of luscious sweet strawberries.

By the end of the next day they had been transformed into these!

As usual I still have to do the "pretty" stuff, making some more attractive labels and adding a cotton cover, but thats for this week as its looking a bit less busy.

Having not made strawberry jam for years (I usually make plum or blackberry for some reason ) I was a little nervous as I know with strawberry jam it can be difficult sometimes to achieve a set.  My friend Julie recommended this recipe of Nigella's, which I tried with great success and shall therfore share it with you as it is the easiest, most enjoyable to make, and above all most successful one I have used in a long while!

This is from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" baking and the art of comfort food by Nigella Lawson - the instructions have been embellished a little by yours truly to (hopefully!) help!

Do try this recipe if you havent already as it so good!

STRAWBERRY JAM

675g strawberries (buy 750g to allow for wasteage - I actually used 700g fruit)

750g preserving sugar (I just used granulated)

2 tblsps lemon juice (thats about the juice of 1 lemon)

1 tsp balsamic vinegar (I omited this as my family would turn their noses up!)

*

approx 4 x 200ml jars

Large pan (I used my large Le Creuset - was perfect for this)

Jam funnel, ladle and jam topper pack (wax discs etc)

***

Stick a saucer in the deep freeze.

Wipe and hull strawberries. Cut in half for more traditional textured jam or leave whole if preferred.

Put all ingredients into wide saucepan and stir with wooden spoon to ensure all fruit coated.

Put the pan on a low heat and, stirring every now and again, bring to the boil.

Let boil for 5 to 8 mins (should be a good rolling boil rising up the pan and frothing), depending on size of pan, and start testing for setting point from 4 mins, taking the pan off the heat whilst you do so.(To test- place a tsp of jam on the cold saucer, and push finger through when cooled - if it wrinkles its ready, if not re-boil for another few minutes and repeat until set)

When set reached, leave the pan to cool for 20 mins. ( Before cooling I skim off most of the froth and stir in a small knob of butter to disperse the rest )

Whilst cooling, sterilise the jam jars by 1/4 filling with water and microwaving on high for 10 mins.

Decant jam into jars ( I use a funnel and ladle ) and seal in the usual way (see note 1)

Believe me this is so yummy you will never ever want to buy shop bought jam again!!

Notes

note 1 ( UK tend to put wax discs on and cellphane tops with elastic bands as per instructions on packet - US do it differently I think with kilner jars?)

I made two batches, and the second batch I added another 200g each of jam and sugar - the beauty of this recipe is you can just scale it up depending on how much you want to make - just make sure to allow plenty of room in your pan for the jam to rise up as it boils.

I still used the same amount of lemon juice but obviously if you were increasing the fruit/sugar significantly you would need to add more lemon juice accordingly.

I suspect the next preserving I shall be doing will be associated with tomatoes - the golden variety I grew have ripened well, and are a beautiful yellow and so sweet , but the large Oxheart tomatoes grown for cooking are plentiful but still mainly green - I have been picking them to ripen on the windowsill.

I have been picking loads of runner beans over the last few weeks so will have to start freezing them - have given many away and they have been keeping well in the fridge but they just keep coming faster than we can eat them!

Does anyone have any tips for freezing them??? I have heard that they freeze well without blanching - has anyone any experience of this? If so I would be very grateful to hear.

I got lucky at Homebase last week with cut price chrysanthemums reduced to £2 for a large pot, and wooden tubs half price at under £5 each.

Logan checking them out!

Have a great day everyone - it has been a beautiful sunny morning here in Kent, and Logan and I had an extra long walk this morning through the woods and round the orchards - I will try to rememeber to take the camera the next sunny morning as the red apples look so beautiful hanging off the laden trees with the bright blue sky in the background.

Back in the groove......

Not!!!

Well I'm trying to get back into it but it's just not happening yet!

You know what its like - the end of the summer holidays arrives all too soon, the kids go back to school, and there's a little guilty sigh of relief that despite the wonderful times enjoyed during the holidays, it is actually quite nice to get just a little bit of humdrum routine back into your life.

And, it must be said, (if you're fortunate to be based at home ) perhaps a bit more control over how you can spend your TIME.

The older I get, the more I value time.

When you are young, time seems immaterial as there always seems to be an abundance of it.

Even as you get older, and life seems completely taken over by work by day, social life by night, and chores squeezed into the weekend, time starts to speed by a little faster and becomes a little bit more of a luxury, but its still not valued as a scarce commodity.

But then if you have children, just when you thought your life couldnt get any busier with the full time job, social life and chores, suddenly you have this tiny little being to care for that is totally reliant on you and yet still do all you did before as well, and on precious little sleep!

I remember when my daughter was in her first year and I had recently gone back to work, we had our first baby free evening out for a while, after a day at work - and all I wanted to do was go to a hotel and sleep!

(Of course we didnt, we managed to drag ourselves out for a meal and talk babies all evening!)

That's when it first creeps up on you, that realisation that there really never is enough time in the day to do everything.

Time suddenly becomes a huge luxury.

As they get older, suddenly you realise how quickly the time seems to pass - another birthday cake, the end of another term already, now the end of another school year - life becomes punctuated by the school holidays.

And conversations with friends when arranging to meet for coffee after they've gone back - " I can't believe how quickly the holidays went", and "how can it be the middle of September already?", and "I just don't know where the time goes".

And all the things you'd planned to do once they'd gone back a week or so ago still remain unticked on your list because you are still "catching up" after the holidays - phone calls and paper work and computer "stuff", tidying and sorting and catching up on skimped housework.

I have reaffirmed all the above with a friend this morning who is also "still catching up"  and feels the same lack of time, and once again we have come to the conclusion that there will never be enough time so something has to give and we'd better just try and get on with what we want to do atleast some of the time, and let the housework go hang!

So....

So having written off last week with the chimney being re-built above roof level, I am now armed with a long, neatly typed list of all the things/jobs I want to do with my now (supposedly) relatively free days.

 

There are lots of decorating and painting jobs on my list as well as outdoor jobs galore, so before picking up the paintbrushes I will just have to make an effort to spend plenty of time researching ideas and getting inspiration from the latest lifestyle and homes magazines..................

I have also booked coffee mornings this week to catch up with friends I rarely see during the busy holidays.

Delay tactics methinks, as the list is rather daunting!

I hope everyone had a great summer holiday - I'm very much looking forward to visiting you all and catching up on your holiday pics and your news - and thanks for all your comments on my last post!

Hope you've all managed to get back into your "groove"!



Days of Mellow fruitfulness

As summer slowly slips away, the last of the evening light fades all too quickly and dawn seems a long time coming in the early morning.

 As the days grow shorter there is a faded softness in the garden on mild days when the sun shines weakly through the layers of cloud.

Even on a bright day when for some of the time the sky is an unbelievably bright blue, the air holds a hint of freshness which makes you shiver when the still hot sun goes in.

But for the most part, the mellow signs of autumn are now apparent throughout the garden and countryside.

The hedgrows are full of ripening and already spent blackberries

in the garden, the roses are gently fading

the tomatoes are gradually taking on colour, slowly ripening in what meagre sun there is

the crabapples are bright red, just waiting to be picked and made into crabapple jelly

the autumn hues are everywhere

the hydrangeas have lost their bright early summer colours of clear blues and pinks, and instead are turning soft rosy hues tinged with green and lilac like soft faded cotton summer dresses worn and washed too many times

bright berries show vividly against the green leaves as yet untouched by autumn tints

and the grapes ripen darkly on the vine, plump and juicy, with a frosted bloom

a little new colour in the garden cheers me, as the garden in general takes on that neglected and faded worn out autumn appearance

the last flush of white roses still softly scented

and the blooms of the sweet smelling honeysuckle are finally over for the year, now given over to berries

the outdoor peppers, although still abundantly flowering, are in a race against time to grow into peppers large enough to eat

and the tomatoes, although the golden variety are colouring up nicely now, the Oxheart still have a way to go

the first beetroots have been pulled and given away, but plenty more for us

and the remaining spring onions have finally reached a respectable size

the sweetcorn has ripened

the runner beans are coming thick and fast now, having recovered from the set back in early June when I first planted them out to be weakened by intense heat and heavy rain which burnt and shrivelled the leaves

the warmth loving hibiscus has only managed to produce a few flowers this year

 

a ladybird finds a resting place amongst some reddening berries

On the Gillyflower Home News front

 Bella has successfully passed her GCSEs and got her place in the Sixth Form at school - lots of happy dances and sighs of relief and sipping of bubbly for a few days here in the Gillyflower household.

And a new Blackberry arrived in the post as recognition of all the hard work (rather belated as it was  intended to reward the effort before the result)

To her (and our) delight, she managed to secure a couple of A*s, a generous sprinkling of As, a couple of Bs and a rather unexpected D for Drama, which the school are contesting for all the drama students as the majority got unexpected and exceedingly low grades - so hopefully that will be upgraded!

Poor Logan has had a male doggy operation and, as well as the obvious discomfort and confusion, has sadly had to suffer the indignity of wearing a lampshade type of collar for a week to prevent his licking his wound.

This somewhat curtailed his usual mad chasing of Bessie, but all Logan lovers will be pleased to hear that even by the day after he was trying to behave as normal, and we have had great difficulty in ensuring he has had the prescribed 10 days "rest" as he has tried to rush around like a loony as usual.

On the plus side, he has loved the "recovery" food ( a kind of meaty pate, served every couple of hours for the first few days - oh boy he couldnt get enough of it!)and has spent many happy hours on "Mummys" lap just like old times when he was a little pup and has, quite rightly, been thoroughly spoilt and mollycoddled by everyone.

Well, sorry this has been such a long post, thank you all so much for bearing with me, and thank you for all your comments on my last post.

Once School goes back I shall aim to return to a normal routine of posting more frequent but shorter posts!