Life has been very hectic over the past few weeks to say the least ! Work has been manic and we have my mother in law Dora living with us as she is very frail and her previous living situation became intolerable. She was doing really well until a couple of weeks ago when she suffered another stroke – which took its toll on us and especially my husband Geoff who has spent a lot of his time going back and forth to the hospital and the doctors. All this as well as lots of jobs – including photographing some long – and fabulous weddings – means that we haven’t had a lot of time for our poor neglected garden!
However today I popped out to find quite a nice crop of blackcurrants in the very overgrown fruit an veg patch. Although I make marmalade every year I’ve never made jam so I thought I would take a break from my mega photo editing session and give it a go with my fresh – albeit quite small – crop. As I had just a pound of blackcurrants I supplemented these with a pound of blueberries to make a super foody jammy treat!
Here’s the recipe:
1lb/500g of blackcurrants
1lb/500g of blueberries
2lb/1 kilo sugar
850ml/1.25 pints of water
Wash the fruit and remove any stalks. Put into a pan with the water and bring to the boil. Cook rapidly for about 20 minutes until the fruit is soft. Meanwhile warm the sugar through in a low over. When the fruit is soft add the warmed sugar and boil until setting point is reached – about 10-15 minutes. I don’t have a jam thermometer so use the old fashioned flake test. When done remove from the heat to cool a bit before putting into sterilised jars.
