Season of mellow fruitfulness... jamming anyone?

Graces7

I have plans and a freezer full of picked fruit.... Last autumn I was new to the island and had no electricity so all I could do was stand at the hedges and eat.... soon joined by a neighbour.

This year is different. YAY! The hedges here are wild and free and although the Scorch killed a lot of blossom etc I am awed at the huge blackberries...and rose hips! oh my!

Plans are simple. Opting for rose hip syrup; they are a superfood and that will help me in winter... blackberry syrup and jam...

I am sure you will be more inventive... I do not eat chutney or relishes so that limits me...

Graces7

well I am surprised... made my first batch of blackberry jam today. wonderful aroma and taste that will bring summer back in midwinter...

The Hill Billy

I only noticed the size of our blackberries this afternoon - they are huge! We also have a big apple crop coming too. I'll be making apple jelly definitely. Blackberry jam will depend on how many make it back to the pot.

Graces7

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I only noticed the size of our blackberries this afternoon - they are huge! We also have a big apple crop coming too. I'll be making apple jelly definitely. Blackberry jam will depend on how many make it back to the pot.

Blackberries here are patchy. depends which way they are facing and how much protection they had during the Scorch. Some hedges just got burned but where they had shade the size is amazing, I picked over half a kilo in half an hour y'day and plenty left just near the dwelling. Rose hips too in great abundance; they came back on a second flowering.
.
will be jarring my first blackberry today.

joujoujou

Massive harvest of redcurrants this year, as well as white currant. Most of them now in jars - quick look around and spotted approx 20 jars, 0.25 to 0.5 litre each.

Gooseberries, strawberries and wild strawberries all eaten on the spot.

the beer revolu

Mrs. Beer had become a dinger of a jelly maker.

So far this year:
A mix of redcurrant, blackcurrant and gooseberry. Most of it became cordial but some made it into jelly, too.

Windfall apple and medlar.

Graces7

I was very surprised at how fast my jam set. Then I remembered that always before I have lived and jammed at high altitude and that we had realised that our jam was very slow to set because of this. scientific fact...

So now I am just a very few feet above sea level and it sets normally and is a better flavour and colour... second batch being prepared..

Graces7

deep in preserves here.. a slow walk along any lane yields five pounds of big ripe blackberries.... My tiny kitchen is now a jam factory... Reminds me of my trading years when I was selling at least 200 jars a week.... switching to juice/cordial soon as there are still so many berries ...WHen they ripen depends on the direction they are facing for wind and sun.. rose hip syrup next and looking forward to a healthy winter..

goat2

Blackberries are a real super food, I have also been picking but using stevia to sweeten and chia seed to help thicken, love it, also putting some in blender and adding it to 7up free and some water, fab,

Graces7

Another batch on now; this will go to make syrup to dilute and drink later... Rose hips are next; they really are a super food.

Neyite

Joining up. I've a small crop of blackberries so will make a couple of pots of jam I think. I definitely want to grow more fruit next year. I did grow some strawberries but they didn't last long!



I like chutneys so will soon start on my 2 usual ones and this year I tried to grow a small crop of tomatoes so think I might try a small jar or two of green tomato chutney.



Then it's on to collecting the various ingredients for the Christmas cakes. I might attempt pudding this year too - depends on how organised I am though!

Pintman Paddy Losty

Graces7 wrote: »

I was very surprised at how fast my jam set. Then I remembered that always before I have lived and jammed at high altitude and that we had realised that our jam was very slow to set because of this. scientific fact...

So now I am just a very few feet above sea level and it sets normally and is a better flavour and colour... second batch being prepared..

Did you live somewhere abroad? With very high mountains. In Ireland any difference in altitude would be negligible.

My wife has made some delicious plum jam and a spiced Chinese plum sauce. Great stuff.

Graces7

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Did you live somewhere abroad? With very high mountains. In Ireland any difference in altitude would be negligible.

My wife has made some delicious plum jam and a spiced Chinese plum sauce. Great stuff.

Actually the reverse is true. My colleagues when we were all here together, professional preservers o f long experience, could not when we were on a mountain, why jam would not set.
We asked around and learned that even a few hundred feet makes that more than noticable difference. We were having to use commercial pectin ; this was a commercial situation

This year is the first time i have ever lived just above sea level and it took me a while to realise why suddenly jam was setting immediately. A better yield and colour too.

We are delighted of course. At my advanced age standing over a hot cooker is not as easy as it was.

The plums sound delicious.. Today I made blackberry cordial ... rose hip syrup next...and i have strawberries and nectarines in the freezer.. so revelling in it all. c

The Hill Billy

That's strange. When I was living in Switzerland a few of my pals made jams & preserves at altitude, & setting was never an issue. ???

Graces7

The Hill Billy wrote: »

That's strange. When I was living in Switzerland a few of my pals made jams & preserves at altitude, & setting was never an issue. ???

Probably they were used to it! Apart from that I have no answer! And yes, they would be used to how it was there. we were not.

Life has its small mysteries..

When it comes down to it, I trust my actual experience and that of the professionals I was working with, as opposed to anything else. I called them and they said straight away, ah you are at sea level now..

And what matters now is that I am delighted to be able to make jam so easily again. It proved to us that the issue had been the altitude. It was a delightful surprise. And has extended my jam making life as old age and increasing disability are challenging and lessening my cooking abilities at a terrifying speed. The first batch I made here I had to leave as |I was unable to stand any longer and when I came back it had set in the pan.

Very very happy here indeed!

Off to sort yet more jars for my winter vitamin fixes...the cordial is truly yummy..then out to pick more fruit..before the first frost.

Blessings and peace to all preservers.. over and out from me on this topic.

The Hill Billy

I'd imagine that it was more likely due to pectin levels in the fruit. I'm no expert, but would think that local soil type & climate would be more likely to influence this than a couple of hundred metres in altitude.

ellejay

Graces7 wrote: »

I have plans and a freezer full of picked fruit.... Last autumn I was new to the island and had no electricity so all I could do was stand at the hedges and eat.... soon joined by a neighbour.

This year is different. YAY! The hedges here are wild and free and although the Scorch killed a lot of blossom etc I am awed at the huge blackberries...and rose hips! oh my!

Plans are simple. Opting for rose hip syrup; they are a superfood and that will help me in winter... blackberry syrup and jam...

I am sure you will be more inventive... I do not eat chutney or relishes so that limits me...

When you say rosehips, are they the bulb / apple like formations on a rosebush?
My roses have a lot of them this year, are they really edible?
Or are you talking about something completely different!
I'll take a pic and upload in a while.

ellejay

photo-16.JPG

Lady Haywire

ellejay wrote: »

photo-16.JPG

Noooooooo!! Jaysus don't poison yourself :pac:
Rosehips grow wild, as a child i used to rip them apart for the hairy seeds and throw them down my brothers shirts as itching powder.
I might try rosehip oil this year, supposed to be very good for the skin.

ellejay

thanks so much!

Gloomtastic!

We used to collect rosehips when we were kids to donate to some charity who made rosehip syrup for kids in Africa, or somewhere like that. We were given plastic bags to collect them in.

You used to be able to get rosehip syrup in chemists. Full of vitamins I believe.

the beer revolu

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

You used to be able to get rosehip syrup in chemists. Full of vitamins I believe.

Delrosa.
Loved it as a smallie

mean gene

the beer revolu wrote: »

Mrs. Beer had become a dinger of a jelly maker.

So far this year:
A mix of redcurrant, blackcurrant and gooseberry. Most of it became cordial but some made it into jelly, too.

Windfall apple and medlar.

Sounds like a dinger all right

Graces7

Rose hips are a super food BUT do not eat the seeds as they have hairs and are very irritant. Rose hip syrup is easy to make.

Graces7

Well over 20 lbs jam now. It has been a fascinating time. After setting issues at 600 m asl previously, explained and affirmed by expert professionals for the last years, and we were making literally hundreds of jars for sale each month, the swift setting at sea level has made life easier. Better colour and better yield also .

Still picking when weather permits. Sharing the rose hips with eager blackbirds. They are so abundant there is plenty for all.. A wonderful first island year. Nature is awesome .

Out of jars now so freezing as much as I can and making syrup and juice.

Dizzyblonde

Yesterday I picked all the remaining cherry tomatoes off my plants and have a huge bowl of ripe ones, but I ended up with 500g of green tomatoes which I turned into chutney

sdp

tomato and apple chutney

Neyite

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Yesterday I picked all the remaining cherry tomatoes off my plants and have a huge bowl of ripe ones, but I ended up with 500g of green tomatoes which I turned into chutney

Do you have a recipe for the chutney? I had one but don't know what I did with it...


I may just have about 500g or so on my plants.

Dial Hard

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Yesterday I picked all the remaining cherry tomatoes off my plants and have a huge bowl of ripe ones, but I ended up with 500g of green tomatoes which I turned into chutney

Neyite wrote: »

Do you have a recipe for the chutney? I had one but don't know what I did with it...

Yes, would love this recipe please as I have tonnes of cherry tomatoes but they're all unripe and aren't going to ripen at this stage.

Thanks!

Dizzyblonde

This is the recipe I used, though I didn't have any green cardamom. I found it took half an hour longer simmering than the recipe recommended to reduce it enough.
It tasted good going into the jars

http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/906/green-tomato-chutney-recipe/


Edit!The recipe calls for two tablespoons of salt but I halved it.

Neyite

Thanks Dizzyblonde!


That's my weekend sorted so.

Rechuchote

It's jam-making time. What are people making? Got a rake of Bramleys in Supervalu for 79c for four; thinking about apple jelly.

The recipes are a little puzzling, though. Rather than one litre, two litres, etc, they tend to have things like 1.7 litres. At first I assumed this was because they were converting from imperial or American to metric, but seemingly not. What the?

We have a jam thread going already so I'm going to merge them

Rechuchote

Thanks for the merge, Gloom.

I've made one batch of apple-and-rosehip - didn't set; one batch of apple jelly - didn't set. What the…?

I have a couple of theories on it:

Could the jam sugar be too old (God, jam sugar is expensive!)
Could I be making too big a batch at a time?

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Thanks for the merge, Gloom.

I've made one batch of apple-and-rosehip - didn't set; one batch of apple jelly - didn't set. What the…?

I've made a few apple and <insert random fruit here> jellies before, and as far as I know the secret, if that's the right word, was to a) use cooking apples and b) use the entire apple, peel, core, seeds and all. Much of the pectin that makes it set is in the peel.


There's a really abundant sloe crop this year, so I may make some more sloe jelly, which is also actually more apple then sloe in fact.

EDIT: disn't see your edit .. I used plain sugar, not jam sugar, and no added pectin.

ellejay

Alun wrote: »

I've made a few apple and <insert random fruit here> jellies before, and as far as I know the secret, if that's the right word, was to a) use cooking apples and b) use the entire apple, peel, core, seeds and all. Much of the pectin that makes it set is in the peel.


There's a really abundant sloe crop this year, so I may make some more sloe jelly, which is also actually more apple then sloe in fact.

EDIT: disn't see your edit .. I used plain sugar, not jam sugar, and no added pectin.

Alun I'm looking for sloe's to make sloe gin, could you pm where you pick them please? I'm not far from Bray.

Alun

ellejay wrote: »

Alun I'm looking for sloe's to make sloe gin, could you pm where you pick them please? I'm not far from Bray.

PM sent.

Rechuchote

I used Bramleys and a few blackberries for a richer colour. Boiled the chopped apples and blackberries and the thin rind of two lemons for around half an hour until well pulped, then strained them and added about 2/3 the amount of sugar per litre (450g sugar to 600ml). I forgot to warm the sugar, but added it cold. Squeezed in the lemons, brought the mix to a gentle simmer till the sugar dissolved stirring, then to a high rolling foaming boil for around 10 minutes.

All this, so far (apart from forgetting to warm the sugar) is from Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking.

At this stage I started testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling. It never jelled.

Alun

Sounds very similar to my recipe. I used twice the weight of apples to sloes, and the juice and peel of half a lemon for every kilo of apples. Brought to a boil, simmered, and strained overnight. Next day added 400g sugar per 500ml of measured liquid, stirred until dissolved and brought to a boil. I used sugar thermometer but also tested on a cold saucer, and it gelled just fine. My sugar ratio was a bit higher than yours is the only major difference I can see.

Rechuchote

Trying again. I think I may have mis-measured and used way too much water.

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Trying again. I think I may have mis-measured and used way too much water.

My recipe just said add enough water to just cover the fruit, no quantity mentioned.

Rechuchote

Hm, this time I used a litre of water to a kilo of fruit. I don't even have a litre of juice to show for it!

Rechuchote

Cracked it. I wasn't using enough sugar. The amount of sugar seems so huge (because you're judging it by weight against liquid volume and sugar looks bigger than liquid) that I didn't really believe it.

(I've made apple jelly before, but it's been a few years, and I'd forgotten exactly how it should look. And while there are a good few videos out there, none of them that I've found actually show the measuring and then show the volume of sugar to juice.)

Gloomtastic!

Bought a jar of Irish Black Butter last week because it had me intrigued.

It’s basically apple conserve and sugar/treacle/molasses. Loads of uses for it - dip/spread/coating and seems pretty easy to replicate.

https://www.irishblackbutter.com

Alun

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Bought a jar of Irish Black Butter last week because it had me intrigued.

It’s basically apple conserve and sugar/treacle/molasses. Loads of uses for it - dip/spread/coating and seems pretty easy to replicate.

https://www.irishblackbutter.com

It actually originated in Jersey of all places, called Nièr Beurre in the local Jersey dialect.

Not sure about how easy it would be to replicate though. when I visited a place there where they make the stuff it's cooked on a very low heat for a very long time. I'd say you'd have to watch it like a hawk. No molasses or treacle added though, that sounds like cheating

Rechuchote

Not this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_noir

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Not this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_noir

Same name, kind of, but a totally different thing.

Rechuchote

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

We jammin', to think that jammin' was a thing of the past.

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

Beurre noir in it's most basic form is just melted butter cooked until the milk solids start to turn a dark brown, that's it. Used as a 'sauce' for fish amongst other things.


The black butter referenced above is basically a jam.


http://www.jerseyblackbutter.com/


Confusing I know, but they're two totally different things.

Rechuchote

Zut alors! Quel bordel de confitures!

Gloomtastic!

Rechuchote wrote: »

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

Armagh Bramley Apple (53%)
Brown Sugar
Treacle
Apple Cider
Brandy
Spices
Natural liquorice flavouring

If you're making pressies, it's just something different.