Preservation...

My preserving life is now transformed by two things...

Jam sugar and Preserving sugar.

Why on earth I haven't used them before I don't know. I have struggled on with granulated and then added pectin and had some confidence-sapping burnt pans and setting failures, and looked at the special sugars and thought 'I'm not paying that,' and continued to cart home half a ton of ordinary.

Jam sugar with added pectin sets like a dream every time, while preserving sugar, with its larger granule, refuses to burn the bottom of the pan no matter how hard I try and makes a beautifully clear preserve.

Job done.

The hedgerows are bursting with blackberries this year and as far as Nell is concerned that means free food. 



She picks them off with her teeth and will also help herself to an apple off the tree which she then sneaks into her kennel for a midnight feast..Being a spaniel Nell will do anything for food, and loves all food ... and a lot that isn't food.

Not all food loves Nell though, especially apples and blackberries...

Our apples are looking splendid...


Trees laden with plump, blight-free fruit with no wasp damage, whilst friends nearby have lost the lot to the little blighters. The plums and damsons are in the shops, the Gamekeeper phones with news of more produce that someone has given him (this week six pounds of runner beans and a bag of beetroot) and so in anticipation of a glut I ordered some jars from eBay rather than struggle on with the usually motley selection and run out.

Ninety-six of them to be exact, but only half pound ones, free next-day delivery, and here are the first twenty, the first batch of Hedgerow Ambrosia is done...


This year Spiced Bramble Jam with the blackberries cooked and then sieved before adding to the cooked apple along with some cinnamon and cloves...though I say so myself it's a bit of a triumph. If we can beat the hedge-trimmers there will be more. We've also done some plum, some damson, the orange and lemon marmalade, and some apricot.

The pickled beetroot was easy and looks so lovely...

However the Runner Bean Chutney was a bit of a prolonged ordeal truth be told.

I have invested in a new recipe book, having borrowed it from the library and taken a shine to it, and so some new ideas after about thirty-five years of using the same W.I. book. Let's Preserve It by Beryl Wood has just about every fruit and veg known to mankind listed alphabetically with recipes, so cometh the glut cometh plenty to do with it

We think perhaps it was with the doubling-up that we might have come unstuck because there is no way that amount of vinegar was going to thicken in the thirty minutes of total boiling that the recipe suggested. We started at 3pm and I am not going to tell what time we final gave up trying to 'carve the pathway with a spoon,' and just bottled it... but it was 9pm before we had finally cleared up and sat down with the obligatory pot of tea, a plate of toast and a new jar of jam.

With any luck a year on the shelf will sort it out, but all chutney advice gratefully received because I have green tomatoes and all those apples waiting. I know there are plenty of experts out there...

Meanwhile how's the preservation going over your way..

Good gluts to report...

Good jam combinations to recommend...