Jam

Yum

I have put the last of our strawberries (a lot!) in the freezer and thought I might make some jam. Never done it before. Will have to get some jars first. I thought we might make some wine, but DH has gone off wine making since five bottles of damson exploded in the garage a couple of months ago!

I've just made some strawberry jam but it won't be as good as your peaches. We never get them really big and juicy over here.

We made some apricot jam last week. My second favourite, after raspberry. This time of the year you can buy trays of apricots quite cheaply. Lovely quality too.
In the past we've made apricot jam with fruit from our tree, but for some reason it only produces fruit every few years, none this year.

It was well over 30 C last Tuesday when I went to the market and bought a tray of strawberries - made 11 lbs that afternoon and prepared the rest with a little sugar and made the other half Wed morning - our favourite - I have many in the family now who will be after a jar or so!
We have mo apricots this year and the cherries weren't short supply but I have put some n the freezer. We have a mirabelle tree which has a good crop nearly ripe - I am hoping it stays that way till the temp drops slightly - but they do make lovely jam!

Lik3 damson and black current, in fact most jams really. Trouble is I load it on bread and butter

Apricot is my favourite I'm jealous.

Apricot is my favourite too but I don't make much because I have to buy the fruit. Where do you people live who grow apricots?
I'd made up my mind to give up growing strawberries and raspberries after this year but I'm having a bumper crop of raspberries so may keep them a bit longer. Today I've made second batches of strawberry and raspberry jam. I actually BOUGHT little jam jars from Lakeland as most people don't eat much jam nowadays and prefer small amounts.
It's such a satisfying job, I feel like Laura Ingalls' Ma, preserving the summer harvest for winter!

"Most people don't eat much jam nowadays" - I've noticed that too. When our children used to say "I'm still hungry" we would tell them to fill up on bread and jam. But not nowadays. Maybe it's because of the sugar, but most jams you don't need a lot of sugar.
Apricot - we live in SW France, near the main soft fruit-growing Dept. of Lot&Garonne. We have a few fruit trees, plums do best.

Our apricot tree did well this year for the 1st time and I made a lot of jam. We have 2 peach trees both of which were laden. Some were a bit "mancky" but I just cut out the bad bits! We have given away loads as well! When we go to England I will take some for the children and hopefully swap some peach for blackcurrant that my DD makes with home grown fruit!! We eat jam most mornings on homemade toasted bread.
We live in central Italy apricot.

Does anyone know how to make cordial? I can see another glut of black currents this year but would also like to make elderflower cordial if I could.

Sorry - forgot to click the "Watch this thread"

I make cordial, redcurrant and blackcurrant, using this recipe

www.swedishfood.com/swedish-drink-recipes/180-redcurrant-cordial

I tend to drink it in the winter, as a taste of summer, and drink the elderflower cordial now

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2137638/elderflower-lemon-and-vanilla-cordial

is the one I use, but without the vanilla, it really isn't necessary. It's a bit late to make elderflower now though. Or was it elderberry you wanted? I make tons of that too.

www.eatweeds.co.uk/elderberry-cordial-syrup

I boil the elderberries for at least 20 mins though, so that it keeps for years in good bottles.

My mother lives in Sussex and has lovely apricots! She has quite a sheltered orchard on a south-facing slope, though. I freeze almost all my fruit and make jam in the winter, it brings back the summer somehow. The only exception is the 30 or so lbs of damson jam I shall make for our WI stall at the village fete in early September. that's a killer - the wasps all trying to get in, so all the windows have to stay closed.

Just watched a programme about the WI and wondered if any grans belong?

Sadly, yes - we must have had the discussions just before you joined! I belong under protest, my friends make me go because if we don't, ours will shut and when we are very very old (one member is over 100) we won't have any reason to get out. there is a very large age gap between us (50s) and them (70s upwards).

But we outnumber them now.

They are lovely but oh, so behind what is going on elsewhere. It's taken us two years to get them to allow us to receive minutes by email. They insist on reading every agonising detailed minute out at the start of every meeting. We shall be their age - actually some of us are still in their 40s - before we manage to change their ways!

Thank you Janerowena I've pinned the recipes. The Elderflower is not for now it's just that I am quite addicted to it so it would be nice to make my own

I really must get my act together and start making preserves. The only thing I make on a regular basis is Christmas chutney and pickled onions. I used to make all sorts when I was a young Mum including bottled fruit.

Try the elderberry instead for now gracesgran. It's really wonderful when you have a cold - you drink it hot, not cold.

I have to use up the fruit from my garden first jaerowena but will pin the elderberry as well and look forward to it next year.

30lbs of damson jam! What do you do about the thousands of little stones?
I joined the WI and found them deadly dull and behind the times and I was 67!

Forgot to say apricot but my mother is in Sussex, with her apricot tree.

I boil the fruit and collect the stones as they rise to the surface, with an old cream strainer. I'm not daft!

Some of my friends belong to really good branches of the WI, very modern and with young members, but most say that they do have a lot of hard work to change things. As there are 11 'oldies' and 25 'newbies' we are forcing votes, but very gently. Last week a friend and I escaped from a really nice WI garden party that we were really enjoying (because the president, just like the one in the film, wasn't there!) - until we saw the vice president trying to round everyone up and the hostess muttered that she had been hoping everyone would clear off, but apparently there was another hour to go because of The Quiz. This blasted Quiz is the bane of my life. I can cope with maybe one a year, but they have one every couple of months. We raced our wine glasses back to the kitchen, retrieved our bags and escaped circuitously behind the hydrangeas.

I expect the next generation will think we are a bunch of boring old farts, too!