Allotments 4 All

Here is a pic of the jams I have made so far this year:



I'm pretty chuffed seeing that I don't have a lottie (or even a garden), or car to get to a pick your own. Most of the fruit I have picked from the hedgerows, and the raspbs were given to me by a colleague. Bought a few apples for the jellies, and bought the blueberries.

Many thanks to those on here who helped with recipes and bullace/damson identification  :)

 :o what a fabulous haul! and lovely labels!
how do you do them moggle? ::)

I was just going to ask that :P :P ;D. I like the jars in the foreground too. Where did you get them?

Tricia

I see you made the 'hedgerow' jam,Moggle. Marks out of 10 for taste please. ;D
Isnt it satisfying to make things to be had for the picking? Well done you.

yes do tell

A very satisfying photo Moggle.  Lovely and yummy!  And your labels are amazing!

Well done Moggle!  Happy eating.

Jitterbug

They look scrumptious. Did you design the labels? Elegant, or what!

Thanks guys!

The labels are just 'borrowed' address labels from work - 99*33mm. The font is called 'viner hand itc' and is from MS Word which is the program I did the labels in. The pictures came from clipart online, again accessed through MS word. I can try to email out a document with a good selection of pics if people are interested - I'm sure no-one will tell Bill Gates! PM me your email and make sure you say what fruit/veg you particularly want.

The jars are from M&S, their sun dried toms and olives come in them - as well as a few other things of that type. I made sure they were at the front of the pic, cos I think they look nice. They are put to one side now to be part of a 'matching set' to give to the in-laws at Christmas along with some other food goodies.

I'd give the hedgerow a 7 or an 8 for taste (raspberry being 10 in my book  :)) Very full flavour and a bit tart and also a bit 'tannic'?? kind of like a good full-bodied red wine (but sweet of course). It might be even better strained and as a jelly - I only discovered this year how much I liked jellies.

WOW! What a great spread oj jams, I'm always interested in using products from the hedgrow etc. am going to pick crab apples and rowan berries later today to try a couple of jellies, but had very little success with jellies so far (this is only my 1st year of jams/jelies/chutneys) Is there a secret to Jelly making?

Kathi

don't squeeze the jelly bag
:-[ ;D

... and thank you moggle :-*
oh just noticed the jam tally :o ;D ;D

ooo, I am a gentle squeezer!  ;D

I'm a gentle squeezer too  :)

My essential tool with jellies (and jams) has been a sugar thermometer - no wondering if setting point has been reached - you know from the thermometer.

Prink, I found with crab-apples I didn't add enough water on the first go. I covered around 500gm with water, boiled for ages, strained and only had half a pint of liquid. So I put more water back in with the pulp, with some lemon juice and the rind, and re-strained and got at least another half pint to a pint! So don't be afraid to add more water than you might think at first.