JAM!

We have a little house in London, and are very lucky to have a relatively big back garden compared to most. It isn't very wide, but it is 100ft long. It is south west facing, and gets a lot of sun, so much that we have been known to have barbecues in January.

At the bottom of the garden, we have a vegetable patch and some raspberry canes.  Every year I diligently pick the raspberries and put them in zip-lock bags in the freezer, ready to make JAM!

This year was a bad year for our vegetable patch for everything except cherry tomatoes and raspberries. From the summer fruiting raspberries from the beginning of June, and the Autumn fruiting berries I was picking up until last weekend, I picked 5.4kg of raspberries. So many that my dear husband was getting ever so slightly annoyed with the amount of room they were taking up in the freezer – and he rarely gets annoyed with anything. So, cue a visit from my lovely in-laws, and a jam making frenzy.

Step one: sterilise the jars you want to use, and then put them in the oven on a deep sided baking tray on very low heat (50 degrees Celsius is fine, but no higher).

Step two:  You need the same weight in granulated white sugar as fruit.  Keep this aside until step four. You don't need preserving sugar as raspberries contain high levels of pectin – the added ingredient in preserving sugar.

Step three: Place the raspberries in the pan along with the jam thermometer. It will heat up along with the raspberries to stop it from heating too quickly and shattering.  Bring the raspberries to boiling point, while stirring all the time. Let the fruit boil until the murkiness at the surface clears somewhat (keep stirring!).

Step four: Add the sugar while stirring it in as quickly as you can. Keep stirring to stop any of the sugar and fruit mixture burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Boil until the mixture reaches the 'Jam' setting point on the thermometer (keep stirring!).  You will need to skim off any of the foamy residue on the surface.

Once you reach that point, get one of the plates you put in the freezer and drizzle a small amount of the jam/sugar mixture on the back of the plate.  You should be able to push it along itself with one finger and it form a skin. If it doesn't, keep boiling and try in a few minutes.  If  this is your first go at making a jam, you might want to put a few plates in.  Not all thermometers are accurate, so you may need to experiment to find out where is the right point on yours.

Once it reaches the 'skin' stage, turn off the heat and get yourself a clean plate and a small metal milk jug.  You can use this to fill your jars and stops drips. Don't forget the jam funnel.

Fill jars up to the base of the funnel. Place a wax circle on top, and add a plastic circle that has been soaked briefly in water and secure with a rubber band.

 Allow to cool and then put the lids on, label up pretty up if you want to... I did as I'll be selling 24 jars of this at a stall I have at a Winter Fair next week, with all proceeds going to Crisis.

Husband Rating: Husband decline to give this a rating as he said he couldn't see how you could get a better jam, but doesn't want to keep giving everything 10/10 all the time. Fair enough really. I'll have to make something bad to get him back on track.