Sunday, 10 July 2011
Pick, soak, boil and set are the four stages to making a truly heavenly strawberry jam. We planted five strawberry plants in the border last year, and while we got some fruit, there wasn't enough to do anything other than just eat them. This year, however, the plants have gone mad. So far we must have picked at least 3lb of strawberries and there are still plenty ready to pick and plenty that have yet to fully ripen.
When we came back from holiday (don't worry there will be more holiday themed posts) I had a few days before I went back to work and given the amount of strawberries I decided that some of the time should be spent slaving over a hot stove producing strawberry jam.Of course while making a batch of jam is rewarding, there is a feeling of accomplishment as well as a sweet food, you can't really eat jar after jar of jam on it's own. So this weekend I made fruit scones.
So the last two days have been pretty good; eating homemade scones with home made strawberry jam while watching the British F1 qualifying/race. What more could a person want?
They look lovely Mark. I've never made jam and with the price of fruit in the shops probably won't until we have enough land to grow our own. One day...
Helen, you really don't need much in the way of space. We only have five strawberry plants at the front of a border. I think the trick is to make sure they are of the right variety to produce lots of fruit. You could probably even grow five plants in that 'huge' greenhouse of yours and make lots of jam -- you also wouldn't lose so much fruit to birds/slugs.
Thanks Mark. We were planning to hang some containers of strawberries from the roof of the greenhouse, but haven't got round to it yet. Will definitely have to give it a go next year.
As for the birds - they keep getting in the greenhouse. We had 4 sparrows in there this morning. There are nets on the windows and we never leave the door open (because the butterflies love to come in and lay eggs everywhere) so it's rather a mystery how they get in.
Now if you could make Marmite!
Hmm not sure I'd get away with making Marmite. I'm guessing it would smell a bit like making beer (that lovely yeast smell) and Bryony would never put up with that fermenting away in the kitchen!
How's the Marmite cookbook working out by the way?
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