Hello!
Finally got to some of the cooking that is lurking about on my list!
Two packs of raspberries turned into jam today.
The freezers are full to the brim so taking anything out to cook is a good thing!
I did two batches – as anyone who cooks jam knows (unless they have some tricks I don’t know about) jam doesn’t set if you cook it in large quantities! My upper limit is 3lb (Using Nanna’s old scales of course)
I don’t use anything but the jam, sugar and lemon juice.
Looking forward to my toast tomorrow morning.
Got a bit more done in the herb garden. Collected a bagful of fennel seeds! Although getting the plants out will require a shovel – the roots hang on!
Time to tidy the feverfew
A rogue something or other has popped up in the layered garden I made but never planted anything in. I think it may be a pumpkin. Way too late, but I will let it have its fun. Looks happy enough.
The thick layering of newspaper in this patch has been extremely effective in stopping weeds.
The salvia has exploded again! I can never get over how it bounces back after pruning it to the ground each season!
My hydroponic rose surprised me with a pretty bunch today. (I only call it that because the poor thing lived in a barrel of water for two years while I procrastinated about where to plant it! It clearly had a will to live)
I went to collect eggs… got sidetracked by the tomatoes. I needed a bigger basket, so will have to go back tomorrow and comb the plants more thoroughly… I just picked the obvious ones this evening.
We also squeezed in another hike this afternoon as it had been a few days since our last one. I had the camera out for the inland part of the walk with the longer lens as every time we have been lately we have seen at least one tiger snake and several wallabies.
Clearly a camera is a good animal deterrent – no snakes and not one bouncy thing to be seen! Annoying!
Oh well… it was a beautiful, if somewhat hazy, afternoon!
Cheers
Lisa
Have u given us your Raspberry Jam recipe? I would love to have it someday when things calm down for you? If they ever do? You are a firecracker!!
I don’t think I have – its not very exciting haha I simply put the same weight of fruit and sugar into a pot (mostly I do 3lb raspberries and 3lb sugar although 2lb cooks faster) plus I also add lemon juice to calm the sweetness down a bit. Once I did it without the lemon juice and was very disappointed in the taste. Anyway – at least one decent sized lemon.
Bring it to boil and then turn the stove down to let it fast simmer. The trick then is knowing when its ready. I put a small plate in the fridge or freezer, then when I think the jam is close, I put a bit on the cold plate, back in the fridge to let it cool a bit more. Then tip it up and see if it wrinkles or runs too fast. If its the latter – more time in the pot! I have gotten used to seeing how the jam drips off the wooden spoon too and can pretty much tell by that when its ready. It did take a bit of trial and error! (I HATE having to scrape jam back out of jars to recook!!) You will get a bit of froth on top. A bit of butter will clear that if you like. But mostly I just scrape that off the top.
I sterilise my jars in the oven at 100C and put the jam in hot and seal with a lid. All done.
lol – ‘firecracker’ thanks for the grin!!! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, Lisa. I have made a lot of Jam of all sorts. This past summer i even got my hands on Huckleberries!!! Wow! That jam is really good!!! Do you ever see Huckleberries there in Tasmania?? I have not made jam without pectin , however. So thank you for the instructions. Im used to testing it off the spoon. Hopefully i can catch on to the no pectin jam.
I have never tried Huckleberries! I am not sure you can get them here… I’ll have to look that one up.
I have never tried pectin! 🙂 I find I can get most jams to set without it – apart from the strawberry jam. I always seem to muff that one up. Did you see my kiwi/pineapple jam recipe? At least… I think I posted it once 🙂
Let me know how you go if you try the no-pectin approach!