Jam & Jerusalem

A New Way of Preserving

For the past week I seem to have a new daily ritual. Picking soft fruit. Everyday there is another crop to pick. As we have not yet completed the fruit cage, it’s a race between me and the birds. 

A more predictable spring and summer with periods of sun and rain has been the perfect conditions for soft fruit this year. The raspberries and strawberries in particular. The strawberries have almost gone, but weather permitting the raspberry season should last until October.

In the past I have made small batches of jams and preserves like my mum used to. Take some sterilised jam jars, fill with the cooked jam, cover the surface of the jam with a waxed paper disk and seal the jar with a clear plastic jam cover.  This process is apparently called “Putting up”. A phrase I had not heard before this year. I believe it’s an American phrase from the 1800’s, correct me if I’m wrong, I’m curious to know more about its origins.

I’ve also tried using Kilner style jars with rubber seals and cooking the jars in water in the oven. Invariably a jar would always crack and I’d never know for sure if the seal was good. The pressure cooker method didn’t appeal to me either for the same reasons.

As I plan on preserving more this year, and concerned with the the safety of long term storage, we decided to invest in a Home Canning System from Germany. 

I wonder what the Women’s Institute (WI) would make of my jam recipes!

There’s no need to mess with a classic strawberry jam recipe so I kept that one simple and then also made a raspberry and mint jam.

Classic Strawberry

453g Strawberries washed, hulled, roughly chopped. Small fruit can be left whole
453g Granulated Sugar
3 Tbsp Organic Sicilian Lemon Juice (or Juice of 1 Lemon)
Place all ingredients into a large pan and bring to a rapid boil for about 10 mins.
Use the plate test * to determine when the jam is set.
Remove from heat
Fill sterilised jars and follow your Home Canner’s instructions for preserving jam

Raspberry & Mint Jam

453g Raspberries
3/4 Cup Mint Leaves
2 1/4 Cup Sugar
3 Tbsp Organic Sicilian Lemon Juice ( or Juice of 1 Lemon)
Infuse the sugar overnight with the mint leaves
Follow the same steps as for the Strawberry Jam.

* Plate Test – to determine the setting point for the jam. Place a teaspoon of the jam mixture on a chilled plate. If when cooled the jam wrinkles when pushed with your finger, the jam has reached its setting point.

 

 

A Bitter & Sweet Symphony in Orange

The Nagami Kumquat 

We don’t grow everything hydroponically. The small holding is a mixture of conventional soil based gardening and hydroponics. I don’t think it’s possible to grow everything hydroponically although I might be wrong. I still have a lot to learn. At the moment the main goal is to keep our hydroponic experiment as simple as possible.

As well as the kitchen garden, the hydroponic and the conventional polytunnel we have two greenhouses. One is dedicated to fruit growing. It’s currently home to a few dwarf trees – nectarine, apricot & cherry, and two grape vines whose root stock have been planted outside the greenhouse whilst the vine grows inside.

My pet project in this greenhouse is growing citrus trees. And it all started a few Christmases ago before we moved into our small holding.

Although I don’t have a very sweet tooth I do own one desert cookbook –  Ready for Desert (My Best Recipes) by David Lebovitz. That particular Christmas I was looking for something I could serve on Christmas Eve and I came across his Champagne Gelee with Kumquats, Grapefruits & Blood Oranges recipe. Convinced I had seen kumquats in one of my local supermarkets I was determined to make this desert. But could I find them? Not a chance. I ended up substituting mandarin orange segments instead. 

Moving to our small holding we made a list of criteria for deciding what to grow.
We like to eat it
It’s relatively expensive to buy
It’s difficult to buy

Hence the citrus tree project.

The Nagami kumquat is an unusual little citrus plant. It produces an abundance of small oval, orange fruits late in the season, that are eaten whole. The rind is sweet whilst the flesh bitter. A native to South Asia, the small evergreen bush needs hot summers, but is hardy enough to withstand temperatures as low as -10 degree centigrade. Although the people I buy my citrus trees from recommend keeping the temperature no lower than 3 degrees.

With one of my bushes full of fruit, I searched online for ideas as to what to do with them and came across a kumquat marmalade recipe, by who other than David Lebovitz!

Here’s his recipe.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2014/02/kumquat-marmalade-recipe/