Yes, well all provident housewives of our grandmothers' generation started thinking about mincemeat, quince jelly and Christmas puddings in late August or early September when they had finished jam-making and bottling fruit.
In February, my mother bought bitter Seville oranges for making the marmelade that my father ate at breakfast every day, and that we children were not allowed to have, as the home-made jam was cheaper, as we grew the raspberries, strawberries, currants and gooseberries ourselves, and collected the brambles.
I have just made the year's supply of elderflower cordial, decided that I have sufficient apple-cider-vinegar to last another year, which is all to the good, as the prolonged drought will probably minimize the apple crop, but hope for enough crab apples for jelly.
