Jam season has arrived. The back garden has suddenly burst into a forest of fruitfulness and I’m sterilising jars like there’s no tomorrow.
The last of the rhubarb has been jammed, and we’ve had our biggest ever crop of gooseberries (800g from one little bush!) which meant I could make my first proper batch of gooseberry jam this week. (My previous attempt, which I tried to make with a smaller crop of gooseberries two years ago when I was somewhat distracted by the result of the Brexit vote, went slightly awry!)
We managed to salvage a handful of cherries from the tree, but the birds took most of them. We’ve certainly not got enough for jam, but maybe I can throw them into some kind of dessert.
The strawberries have all been eaten and it’s just the blueberries and figs left to look forward to now. They’re ripening up beautifully. We have three small blueberry bushes and always get a good return from two of them.
We only have a small back garden but I’m always so impressed with the amount of fruit we get from it. Ade has crammed in so many fruit bushes and they mostly seem happy. The plum tree struggles a little, and we’re not sure if we’ll have anything from the pear tree – which is still quite young – but on the whole, it’s a fruity little Eden back there.
How are your fruit coming along? Anyone growing anything exciting this year?
AGENTS OF FIELD 
Reblogged this on littleplotbythesea and commented:
I’m hoping to avoid jam-making for 2 weeks until I move but might need to squeeze it in as the fruit is appearing from all corners…
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Rhubarb makes jam? Is the jam saucy? When I get enough to can, I just make a compote like goo that can get dumped into a casserole with biscuits. (Rhubarb usually goes into a pie before I get a hold of it.) I would have guessed that it would not gel, but have not bothered to try. We have both crabapple and quince for pectin. They commonly get mixed with (Japanese) sweet plum to get it to gel. (We have no prunes right now.) I suppose I could mix them with rhubarb if necessary.
Also, are those sweet cherries? They look like the sort that would be eaten right off of the tree. We use sweet cherries for jam, just because they are all that we have. They were one of the most common of the fruits that grew in the orchards here decades ago. (Like the prunes, the tart cherries are presently lacking.)
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I think I asked about the cherries already. Someone had told me that some of them look just like the sweet cherries.
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Yes, they’re sweet cherries. You can eat them straight from the tree! 😊
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Someday (!) I must procure a tart cherry tree, just to see if they really are any better. I grew up with only sweet cherries, so I do not know any better. There is a native (a few hundred miles away) cherry that is used in landscaping here. I make jelly with it, but it is rather icky.
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Hey Tony,
Rhubarb makes an excellent jam! It’s naturally low in pectin, so you do have to add some, but I make a batch of rhubarb jam each year. It doesn’t set firm like other jams, but it’s really delicious. Here’s the recipe I use: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1091639/rhubarb-and-ginger-jam
Sophie
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Thank you. I had to look up ‘jam sugar’. I have never used it. I just use crabapple, quince or the peels and cores of apples (that were made into apple sauce) for fruit that lacks pectin, as well as rhubarb. I just figured that the rhubarb interferes with jelling, like mango or pineapple does. If it does not set any more firmly with pectin extract (such as in jam sugar) I would still just stew it into that slop that we put into casseroles with biscuits or over waffles. It is SO one of my favorites! Dare I say that I like it even more than blackberries? (Blackberries get eaten fresh, leaving not much of an abundance for cooking.) Crabapple, quince or apple (scrap) pectin seems to make it a bit thicker so that it does not flow away, but it is certainly not like a firm jam.
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What bounty! And who can blame you for being distracted by Brexit? Troubles here, too, as I am sure you know. Keep us posted about the jam.
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