antics of a jam maker

Well, Ruby and I have made an excellent start on making our strawberry jam for the coming year. Some will go to friends as Solstice presents but most will be lathered on our weekend breakfast rolls.
I was wanting to find a way to stretch that strawberry goodness a litte further this year and so I wanted to experiment with a strawberry and rhubarb jam recipe.

This is the recipe I used:

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

500gm strawberries

250gm rhubarb

350gm sugar (the recipe suggests 500gm)

Chop up the strawberries and the rhubarb into a bowl, pour over half the sugar and let stand overnight.

In the morning, bring to the boil, add the rest of the sugar and then bring to the boil again.

Simple.

Sterilise jars and jar lids and pop into jars while still hot and then listen to them pop as they cool.

Preserving time always seems to find me making frantic trips around the community for ingredients or implements I have run short of. Thankfully the community garden accepts bags of jars from people because somehow each year I never have enough jars from my previous years preserving.

Oh yes, I have been known to literally run to the garden to grab extra jars while halfway through jam-making.

Last night was one of those frantic trips.

Rhubarb had become short and the second lot of jam needed to be made, so after dinner and a movie with friends, I nipped past the community garden and did a late night pick.

Oh, our dear community garden, you provide me with food, family, inspiration and beauty, and you looked even more splendid by the light of the moon.