I've been making jam lately. Lots of it. I started off when strawberry season started and they were only $1.50 a punnet. I asked Hanno to get some because I was about to do a workshop about making jam and relish and they would be perfect. Naturally we bought some for us and I made my own jam. Sweet homemade strawberry jam - it tastes of strawberries, not sugar.
We usually make jam twice a year when the seasons give us strawberries in winter and peaches in summer. In January I made peach jam and we still have a ton of it.
And when I did the jam workshop, one of the ladies there offered me some Seville oranges from trees on her farm! Sevilles! You can never buy them in the shops now - they are those tart oranges, the ones used in traditional marmalade. Naturally I received them with open arms. I made orange marmalade. Ahem.
I have just looked in the stockpile cupboard. We have 17 jars of homemade jam! We also have three jars of organic raspberry jam and three of organic apricot jam. Oh, and we also have jam, marmalade and relish - homemade and given to us. And we don't eat a lot of jam. At least there are plenty of jars for giving.
Okay, I will stop now.
Hungarians would make a light supper of just crepes (palacsinta) spread with jam and rolled up. Usually they sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top....This can also be a dessert, especially after a meal of homemade soup.That's the main way I would eat jam.
ReplyDeleteMy family is not much on jams or jellies either, but I am going to make about 4 1/2 pints of mint jelly this week.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you will have some happy friends with your abundant jam stockpile!
Jennifer
how I laughed! 'strawberries in the winter' - your winters are better than our summers! It's the height of summer here and I'm wrapped up warm -
ReplyDeleteAre some of your lids re-used? I just wonder. I keep the glass but find new lids. Would save the planet if I could re-use store lids that come w/ the jars. THX.
ReplyDeleteVirginia
Your posting made me laugh, with you not at you, as I too may have gone a little over board with making jam. But then again I do have a 14yo son who is at the stage of eating us out of house & home. lol. I took my son with me to the pick your own farm first to pick strawberries. He loved the strawberries & the jam that followed but complained about the need to bend over to pick strawberries. Next came cherries. Don't you know that this time he complained that he had to keep his arms over his head too long. Next came blueberries.I thought for sure there would be nothing to complain about. Blueberry picking is so easy with a small bucket hung over your neck you can pick with 2 hands at once & they don't mind if you nibble a few in the process. Don't you know it was too hot & humid that day. But again he is sure enjoying the blueberry jam on his morning yogurt. He doesn't know it yet but next will be corn relish. No pick your own for that but just wait until he finds out he has to help me shuck a bushel of corn. lol. I'm afraid he'll never be a farmer but at least he will have an appreciation for the work that goes into preparing good homemade food. Oh, forgot I also made a few jars of strawberry-rhubarb jam. Your orange marmalade looks lovely & I'm envious over the raspberry jam. I wanted to pick raspberries as well but at $4.95/pint the price was just too much. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI have heard a lot of people saying they have done up too much jams and jellies. You can use it in cakes or cookies or over pancakes and such. I am sure you already know this. Sill though, you will have an excess. I have been there, I know !! :) Sarah
ReplyDeleteGolly, all that jam. If I lived a little closer to you, I'd make scones and bring clotted cream and help you eat it up!
ReplyDeleteAll best,
AM of the bread (with peanut butter at the moment)
Homemade easy, I often use recycled jars and lids. I find it completely wasteful to have jars you buy at the supermarket as a single serve option. That's just mad. reuse the jars with pop-top metal lids.
ReplyDeleteI love making jam. At the moment we have 3 sorts so about 8 jars. But we eat ours. Every morning it is tea and toast here. Homemade bread with home preserves.
ReplyDeleteI have never made strawberry jam though. We live near a strawberry farm but we always eat them and even the farms 2nds are better than the supermarkets firsts.
I love making jams too, they are always so pretty and delicious! We don't eat a lot of it though, but I do add some to my plain yogurt sometimes. Everyone loves to get a jar or two at Christmas!
ReplyDeleteGosh Rhonda, I'd say you have a handy store of Christmas pressies there! Well done. It's a good position to be in.
ReplyDeleteLucy
Maybe jams suit colder climates better. In the winter, we swirl a spoonful of jam into our porridge in the morning, or just spread it on toast if we're in a hurry.
ReplyDelete17 jars would not be enough for us - in January, our Seville orange season, Howard made 56 jars of marmalade, which is just about enough for a year.
lol, it is nice to have an abundance though isn't it :)
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware you could put a new canning lid on a store bought jar. Does it seal properly? Also, random question. Is there a place where I could get an embroidery pattern/transfer for the little sampler on the sidebar? The be humble one to the right?
ReplyDeleteJams make a quick and easy pie filling. Or a glaze for meat. Or a topping for ice cream. :-)
ReplyDeleteSince you have an abundance you could also use it to glaze chicken or pork as they bake. That is delicious.
ReplyDeleteI love jam on hot toast its one of my comfort foods during winter. I still have plum jam made from plums I pick from my own trees. Since the kids have left home, one totally the other is only here part time, the jam eating has slowed down. But I just love home made jam I cant stop making it.
ReplyDeleteHi Rhonda & Co - I know it's nothing like as hot here in the UK as some of you guys get it, but I got given two huge bags of plums and stuck them in the freezer for now (no spare time at the mo). I will get them out for jam making in the autumn, when the weather is cooler. It also means there won't be any fruit flies around then, either.
ReplyDeleteI have made strawberry jam a couple of times in the past but found that I needed about 4 punnets just to get a jar of jam that only lasted a week or two with 8 of us!
ReplyDeleteI love making tomato sauce (ketchup) and tomato relish and passionfruit and lemon butters though!
Way to go, Rhonda! Fantastic work. I too, have been making jam like a mad woman this past week. I've lost count but I think we are at 200 jars now. We need 100 for our use in a year (flavouring yogurt, PBJ's and on toast) and we will need lots of Christmas gift baskets. Feels so good to see those jewels lined up on the pantry shelf :) Love the look of your marmalade!!!
ReplyDeleteWe've been busy around our household making cherry jelly. The sour cherry trees are being particularly productive this year and we are taking full advantage. Still, I am just about ready to never see a cherry again.... I've pitted so many. Oh well, the jam is superb and the cherries were free. I am happy. I do wish I had the variety you have! I imagine I will be sick of just cherry jelly come middle of winter.
ReplyDeleteI betcha don't. :)
ReplyDeleteHA! Funny you should say that Rose because I just happen to have a big handful of chillis in the fridge and a tendency for chilli jam. ;- )
ReplyDeleteOne can never have too much jam/marmalade as it has so many uses in cooking, you just have to discover which use is best for which jam :). Yours look lovely in their shining jars.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Robyn
What a delightful problem you have in your jam surplus! When I have jam I want to use up, I make jam bars. Roll out enough pie crust dough to fill the bottom of a square pan, spread with a layer of jam, cover with another sheet of pie crust dough and bake. Let cool, cut into squares.
ReplyDeleteYou could use a sugar cookie dough but it's too sweet that way for my taste. I wish I had jam bars right now, with a cup of tea.
So I am wondering about the significance of the bag of some sort and what exactly is in it? Halved oranges? Why do you cook it together and then remove? At least that is what it looks like? Chrissy
ReplyDeleteWe had a great strawberry crop this year made jam and froze some.
ReplyDeleteNow for raspberries they didn't do as well...new plants.
I've never heard of punnet. I grew up on a berry farm and I heard of hallicks. I know it isn't spell right.
Coffee is on.
Hi, Rhonda Jean. I loved your post! I am wondering though, I thought it wasn't a good idea to reuse the store jars/lids?? I save my jars and am so tempted to use them. Do you hot bath process them??
ReplyDeleteWe have an abundance of jelly/jam, but, I don't think I could ever have enough! My hubby has eaten a PB/J sandwich just about every day for the last 36 years, since we have been married! HA!~
I just recently got involved with a local food co-op! BountifulBaskets.org in the USA. My first time I got 2 BOXES of peaches! And, 4 pounds of Strawberries. So, I made strawberry Jam and Peach Jam, frozen peach slices, frozen 1/2 peaches and canned some sliced peaches. I found a fun website to make peach honey, with of all things.....the peach peelings! Mine didn't set up, even with 2 doses of pectin/mix, but, it turned out perfect for syrup! I canned alot of that, and have some in the fridge we are using up, now.
In a few weeks, here in Arizona, it will be time to harvest the deserts bounty of prickly pear! WooHoo...that stuff is awesome, and very healthful. My diabetic mom swears the juice is keeping her blood sugar numbers stable. So, I will make jelly *great for Christmas gifts, because it is so unique* and we plan of freezing a lot of the juice in ice cube trays for ease of adding to juice and lemonade.
Sorry for being so long-winded, I just had to share! LOL
Every year I make jam, and every year I think I've made too much. But after sharing with my siblings and occasionally other family members who get a taste and want their own to take home, we end up with just enough. :)
ReplyDeleteI've made wild plum and wild plum and elderberry this year so far. I don't make vast amounts just about 4 jars a time. My hubby has toast and jam most mornings for his breakfast so I know mine will get used up. Going to try marrow and ginger soon as we have a glut of courgettes at the moment.
ReplyDeleteBLD, I would happily trade peach and strawberry for sour cherry. I love it. When we lived in Germany, we had a sour cherry tree. I'd love one now.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, just search for "free stitchery patterns" in my search bar. It should be there. Let me know if it isn't.
Chrissy, it's some orange peels but mainly pith and pips from the oranges I used. The Sevilles contain a lot of pectin in those parts. I boil the jam with the bag in the jam, then remove it and squeeze the pectin out.
Sherry, I make jam the same in the same way as my Irish and English ancestors, passed down through the family. I believe is still being made this way today by thousands of my UK and Irish friends. We don't water bath, the sugar will preserve the jam if it is stored in sterilised jars. The recycled lids seal perfectly and the jar are stored in the cupboard for about a year. We don't can the types of food you do - we don't commonly can low acid foods, we freeze instead. We're all still here to tell the tale. I think the American system of preserving stems from the large numbers of botulism poisoning in your country every year. It's much higher than it is here. We have had only 6 reported cases in 20 years.
Oh I can smell a Jam Roly-poly or a Marguerite Pudding, and Marmalade in a fruit cake - and Strawberry Jam smothered on Pancakes. REAL jam is delicious, and so much more flavour.
ReplyDeleteI am green with envy at that marmalade. It isn't common here at all and I've only had store bought but I LOVE it. And get outta here! Strawberries twice a year! We are lucky to have local ones once a year in May.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, I love homemade jams. Especially marmelade. When I was on holiday in Denmark, long ago they used to serve homemade buns, with butter, a slice of cheese and topped with marmelade, so delicious, it still puts water in my mouth ; )
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day.
Hi there Rhonda, do you mind sharing your tips for jam that tastes of fruit first not sugar first?
ReplyDeleteI made plum jam a while ago and did the correct 1kg sugar to 1kg of fruit thing and it is so insanely sweet.. then you get the plum taste at the end.
x
gosh, you're RICH! we don't eat a lot of jam either, but there's nothing like homemade for when the mood strikes!
ReplyDeleteTo the lady making cherry jam... you can save a TON of time by cooking the cherries whole in just a wee bit of water to keep them from sticking (you may need to stir the pot frequently), and then putting them through a sieve. The sieve catches the skins and pits, but all the yummy pulp will go right through!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make a clear jelly instead, then instead of putting it all through a sieve, you put the whole mess into a jelly bag and let it hang over a big pot overnight. (no squeezing the jelly bag!) :)
Hope that saves some people all the extra chopping!
I stopped making jam some years back, when I was throwing out 2-year-old jam to use the jars for the new stuff! I don't know what it was about it, but we just don't eat enough of it to make it worthwhile - unless it is leftover from a batch we were planning to eat and starting to go soft. Then I'll make just a couple of jars.
ReplyDeleteHello rhonda,
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy your blog and how you share your wonderful attitude about life in general..We have so much in common! I feel that I have a new friend.
Thanks for the time and efforts you put into this blog for all to enjoy.
I too am a jam maker and have been for 23 of my 41 years. And have always used recycled jars and their lids, never a problem. We aren't big jam eaters here, I have it most mornings on my toast, Hubby rarely eats toast but when he does will down half a loaf of bread and half a jar of jam. Only 1 of our 5 children eats jam, and she has only just discovered it. And will only eat my strawberry and apple jam.
ReplyDeleteHaving just moved interstate 18 months ago, I am rebuilding my jar stash and have been given so much fruit that I have struggled to find enough jars to use. We currently have in cupboard the following jams - satsuma plum, strawberry and apple,lemon,pear and ginger, cumquat marmalade, quince jelly, mulberry and apple, chilli plum sauce. Plus quince paste in the fridge.
I too must stop. Though when I make scones for Hubby's workmates, a jar will be gone just there.
This week I'm doing pickled onions.
Ahh Rhonda
ReplyDeleteWhen I was kid growing up in suburban Adelaide, we had an apricot and a satsuma plum tree in our yard.
Those trees provided jam and preserved fruit for our family of six until I left home in my mid-20s.
For a few years after I left home my Dad would occasionally find a few jars of preserves in the back of a cupboard, still good, and edible - preserved in the old Fowlers Vacola jars, with metal lids, no less!
Good memories.
All the best
Richard
Looks wonderful! Bet it tastes even better. You inspire me. Love dropping by.
ReplyDelete