the perils of homemade jam!!

Gooseberry jam is exquisite if you tie a few elderflower heads in muslin and add them to the gooseberries , removing them before adding the sugar. This is called muscat gooseberry jam. If you have small amounts of different fruits, cook them all together before adding the sugar; this is known as High Dumpsy Dearie jam and it's lovely. One of my all-time favourite jams is Marrow and Ginger, with translucent chunks of lemony marrow in a lightly set ginger jelly. Yummy.

No mention of the delicious tinned jam that used to be available, full of whole fruits and fruit flavour.

Someone suggested I freeze fruit like currants and gooseys
then just rub off the tops and tails when they are frozen and brittle, any one tried this?

Black currant jam is my weakness - haven't started eating it out of the jar, but I love it on toast or in a Victoria sandwich - very slightly tart goes much better with sweet cake IMO than e.g. strawberry, which I find too sweet anyway.

Whoever said it, I love elderflower cordial! A bit too urban here to be able to elderflower-gather, alas.

We’ve been picking and freezing blackcurrants as DH wants some blackcurrants jelly. I usually make Blackberry jelly, and still have a few jars of apple jelly from last year. I made a couple of jars of chilli and rhubarb jam a couple of months ago, but clearly I was too fearful of the chilli as we can’t taste it at all.

Went down to the cellar early this morning and found a very wet floor. Panic stations! It turned out to be a bottle containing elderflower cordial that had broken. So not the costly affair I feared at first sight.

Presumably there was a flaw in the glass, as the cordial had not fermented.

Result: one clean cellar. Then I went on to do the ironing and my ironing-board cover MELTED!

No, ladies, I DID NOT leave the iron standing on its sole, Grannie taught me not to, when I was nine, said she, virtuously. I merely moved the iron slightly off the tray-cover I was ironing.

Who in the name of goodness makes an ironing-board cover that cannot stand the heat of an iron?

Did I hear you say, "A company that wants to sell as many ironing-board covers as possible." Well, if they think I am going to buy one from them again they have another think coming!

And no, I am not going to give up ironing. I LIKE IT! Yes, I know I am odd, you don't need to tell me that.

So I dug out an old sheet and set about making a new cover. Measured carefully and marked the cloth with tailor's chalk, and would you know it? The b. thing doesn't fit!

Just one of those days, apparently!

Long way from jam, I know, right now I am making red currant juice, as I have sufficient jelly left from last year. And there is going to be about a ton of brambles soon. Greatly prefer it to gooseberry jam, although the gooseberry bushes and the bramble thicket are Tam and Tammas as far as surviving an assault upon them to actually pick the fruit.

We don't make jam any more because its just to easy to eat it on bread as an 'extra'. My body mass index is over 25 without it.

I love reading all the GNs posts and it’s good to know there are still a lot of us jam makers around. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the doorstep with a spoon and a plate eating the little pools of jam that my mother used to test the setting point ahhh!!

granfromafar - If you have other fruit, try combining them with it to make jelly- no need to top and tail. Some gooseberries make a nice white wine. If going to make jelly or wine, can just put into freezer without any processing.

Foolishly, I urged DD2 to pick her blackcurrants and make jam, rather than leaving them to rot on the bushes. She was having a busy week so, she got her DH to pick them, then presented me with 2 buckets full of them, not picked clean, leaves, stalks etc. Took me hours to clean and cook them in two huge batches. Now have 20 jars of Jam and DD announces that she does not like blackcurrant, I can keep them and she will swap them for Raspberry or Plum Jam when I make them later. We don't like Blackcurrant either.

We have loads of gooseberries and am fed up topping and tailing them! Do others do this or not bother? Will have to make some jam to use them up as normally just cook and freeze them for crumbles.

Jalima1108

I wonder where you live? Luckily I am in a relatively rural area and damsons grow easily often with big gluts some years.

Me too! I’m up to my eyes in gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, black currants and rhubarb. I very cleverly gave away a small chest freezer last year as we’d moved home and I couldn’t see a need for it. Then I got an allotment..........!

I am also an addicted jam maker and dabble in chutney.
I like jam with a tang to it.

I have also made damson chutney from the damsons that were soaked in for several months for the damson gin.
Waste not Want not.

Damson jam is lovely and you have to forage for them. With this dreadful drought there may be problems for the fruit harvest.
I have some gooseberries off my two small plants and they were very small.
I like raspberries and I buy packs of them on the short dated shelves and I make raspberry ice cream.

All those jams we used to get in shops that are no longer mass produced is sad my mum used to get Pineapple jam. perhaps I ought to try it.

We are all trying to be "Mother earths"

My gooseberries make rather bland jam, but they're excellent for bulking out strawberry jam. I just cook the gooseberries for a few minutes first, then when they begin to soften, add the strawberries and proceed in the normal way.

Black currant and gooseberry makes an excellent combination?. I prefer the jam to either fruit on its own. Adding a few gooseberries to raspberries helps set.

I freeze the fruit as it ripens and keep till later to make jam. Sometimes I combine a few different types to make ‘summer jelly’ - raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and blackberries. Cooked, then strained and the juice boiled up with sugar (1kg sugar to 1 litre juice).

I like making jam but give most away to charity sales. Design and print labels on computer and make covers for lids from scraps of fabric so they look attractive.

Bijou, I buy St Dalfour too and not just because it is probably healthier. I much prefer the taste to ‘ordinary’ jams. They are not so sweet.

The best ever was damson
I love damson jam, my mother used to make the best! However, I haven't seen any damsons for years.

I wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water (even if they are already clean from being dishwashered) then rinse in hot water, don't dry them, put them on baking paper or tinfoil on a baking tray in the oven on about 100C while I make the jam/jelly. I also do the same with any jugs, funnels etc I'm going to use to fill the jars.
Try not to touch the rims of the jars after sterilising.

I'm thinking of making some gooseberry jam now with strawberry as well didn't they do that on River Cottage as well? Anyway what is the best way to sterilise the jars? I'm also growing chilli's and they are coming on well chilli jam maybe.

I love making jam and often do just a jar or a tiny batch if I have fruit left over or past its best. My son often buys fruit, refrigerates it and, often, forgets it. When he went on holiday recently he left a punnet of plums in the fridge.

I went online, found a plum jam recipe and scaled it down. Cut a long one short, I made two jars and it was delicious. The HD and I had some with croissants on Sunday.

Black currant is my favourite, followed by plum, delicious, and some great ideas for chutney which I have never made before.

I love making jam. The best ever was damson, made when a friend gave me some of a particularly heavy crop which he had one year.
My brother, who was in at the beginning of home computers, used to design and print the prettiest labels for my jams - there would usually be a saucy jam-related anecdote added to the label.
We sold pounds of it for charity, as well as eating ourselves stupid!
A rousing chorus of ‘Jerusalem’, anyone?

The red plums on our plum tree make the most delicious jam, in the past two weeks I’ve made 30 pots, it’s a great antidote to the football! I give loads of the fresh plums and the jam away to friends and family and it always goes down well. I love it on fresh crusty bread and scones and it also makes a lovely topping for Greek yogurt. Delish!

My main triumph this year has been elderflower cordial - litres and litres of the stuff and so cheap compared with the bought variety. Sugar, lemons, citric acid and everything else foraged for free - result!
And a first - I found some pink elderflowers which make such a pretty cordial. And a splash of it in a G&T make a very special drink.

Thank you all, I'm salivating at the very thought of all the joys you mention here. I have a delightful neighbour who keeps me amply supplied with concoctions of every fruit imaginable. She doesn't have the resident consumers any more so shares her talent around. Bliss!

Has anyone tried gooseberry and date chutney? I make a lot of chutneys, rhubarb and date is good too!