How much jam is too much jam? I’m hoping there’s no actual answer to that question because all I seem to be doing at the moment is making jam & chutneys as a means to use up garden gluts & preserve my favourite seasonal ingredients (that & I really like jam). Once we’ve gotten the… Read More Blackcurrant Jam
Little red jewels everywhere, or at least there are in my garden at the moment. What are they? Wild strawberries. An early summer treat, wild strawberries are much smaller than commercially grown strawberries, but they’re also far sweeter & more delicate, each one packs the essence of a strawberry into a tiny little vessel. In… Read More Wild Strawberry Jam
Summer is just around the corner & is slowly creeping its way into the UK, any trip to the market will confirm a shift into the season as suddenly there is so much more colour & freshness on offer (a very happy sight). One of the thing’s that signal the beginning of summer for me… Read More Apricot Jam
There’s something sweet, sticky & full of hundreds of tiny seeds in season right now….. figs. Available from August through to October, these plump, pear shaped little fruits have a thin purple hued skin that encloses hundreds of tiny seeds in a succulent, fibrous red flesh. Although the seeds contained within a fig aren’t actually… Read More Fig Jam
Foragers make haste, blackberry season is here! That’s right, September has arrived & than can mean only one thing… blackberry picking! Britain’s hedgerows are currently gleaming with juicy berries, ripe for the picking (even better it’s free!). The first blackberries will have already started to appear in late August but September & October are also… Read More Blackberry Jam
Afternoon tea is a British constitution, it’s as much a part of our fabric & culture as baked beans & the Queen. Dainty little finger sandwiches (of which cucumber is clearly the best), scones with jam & proper clotted cream all followed up by the pièce de résistance, slabs of beautiful cakes & delicate pastries, all… Read More Fruit Scones
The sun is shining (for now), the flowers have bloomed, plants have fruited & Wimbledon has begun… it can only be British summertime! A very welcome season, us Brits truly know how to make the most it. We light our barbeques at any given ray of sunshine, dining al fresco in the garden until the… Read More Strawberry Jam
Seasonal Farewells It’s over, gone, done & dusted for another year. Luckily as we mourn the loss of a summer that never truly came to be, we enter a season that I’m just as fond of, Autumn. The beginning of Autumn signals three things for me… firstly pumpkins, everything from cakes, pies & muffins to… Read More Mixed Fruit Jam (Summer Garden Jam)
Travelling Jam We’re still in the eternally long & poor month of January, but 2017 is already shaping up to be a cracking year for this baker. No, I haven’t been signed to write ‘The Marmalade Teapot Baking Book’ or been left a large some of money from a long-lost relative (it is early in the year… Read More Fig Crostata
Pink Abundance Garden rhubarb, I have a crop that despite all odds returns to the bottom of my fascinating garden every year, greeting me with its joyous pink hue. I’m no gardening enthusiast by any means but I can’t help but be impressed with the perseverance of nature right outside my back door. Over the… Read More Rhubarb & Elderflower Jam