1360g Damsons
1633g jam sugar
510ml water
Simmer fruit and water untill all pulp. Add sugar and boil rapidly or 10 mins or untill set point reached. Remove stones with a slotted spoon and teaspoon whilt boiling. Remember to stir well during the boil to prevent burning. Put in jars and enjoy.
Blackberry & Apple Jelly
2lb 7oz Blackberries
1lb 9oz Apples – random windfalls
1 pint Water
Sugar
Put blackberries, apples and water in a pan and boil for around an hour. Pour pulp and liquid into a straining bag and collect liquid.
Put liquid into pan and add 1lb of sugar for every pint of liquid. Boil rapidly or 10min or use a sugar thermometer and heat to 104 degrees C. Chek the set of the jam by putting a small bit on a cold saucer (leave saucer in frezer or 10 mins before) and seing if, when cooled it is of the correct consistency. Put into jars and enjoy.
We decided to make jelly and not jam because the blackberries were frozen without sorting through them and we felt there was less chance of finding an earwig or spider in the jar if it was filtered.
Chutney Batch 3 2010
1586g marrow
550g white onions
1056g apples – random windfall
500g saultanas
500g dark brown sugar
600ml malt vinigar
50g fresh ginger
6 cloves of garlic
4 thai red chillis – deseeded
Spices
6g Baldes Mace
6g Whole Allspice
6g cloves
6g cinamon stick
6 black pepper corns
I managed to get to the spice stall on the market today to get some bits and pieces for batch 3. All the spices are put in a muslin bag and placed in the pan with the chutney and then removed when putting into jars. The Thai chillis also came from the market and the lady proudly told me that they were imported dircetly from Thailand. I tried one with my dinner and it made me sweat, which was nice.
Chutney Batch 2 2010
1520g marrow
525g white onions
1074g apples – random windfall
500g saultanas
500g dark brown sugar
600ml spiced malt vinigar
38g fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic
4 chillis from garden
After I had put Batch 1 into jars and tasted it (only to find that it was not as spicy as I had hoped) I noticed that I had written ‘Slightly Spiced’ on the bottle of vinigar. To batch 2 I added some chillis, garlic and fresh ginger so hopeuly it will have a greater depth of flavour. Batch 2 was made with random windfalls from Meghills.
1kg marrow
950g Green Tomatoes
500g white onions
200g beetroot
650g cooking apples
500g saultanas
500g dark brown sugar
600ml spiced malt vinigar
Today saw the start of the first batch of chutney of the year. The aim this year is to make enough to give some away, but also have enough to last us for a year. Sadly the marrow came from someone at playgroup and the apples from a shop. The vinigar is some that I added the spices to in the autumn of 2008, which is the last time I made chutney.