21st August 2016 - Jam Making

After a week off work today was at last a busy one down on the plot.  I arrived at 11 to meet a new tenant who has taken one half of a very overgrown plot.  It frustrates me that we have plots that people haven't worked and whilst the council are actually quite good and on top of people they still have to go through two inspections before they are evicted which means that someone can have their plot un-worked for a full season before they are evicted.  The poor lady taking the plot has to now clear waist high weeds; although on the plus side she has got a shed on there :-)

I was absolutely determined to get the wires up on my fence and the cherry tree fanned against it.  I got some galvanised wire which included 10 vine eye screws from Amazon.  I put 3 on each side with 2 fence posts in-between.  I screwed the vine eyes in only half way and drilled holes through the 2 fence posts to feed the wires through.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017E1KHQY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Once I got the wires onto the vine eye screws I then tightened the screws to tension the wires; which worked really well.  As you can see I then fanned the tree against the fence and pruned off 2 branches that were left sticking out into the path.  

On either side of the cherry tree I've also added the two grape vines I've had in the polytunnel for a few weeks.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but my neighbour has hers outside and I thought I'd give it a try.  I will prune them but I wanted to give them a week to bed in before I do it.

So, going back to the title of today's blog.  I picked around 450g of blackberries from my plot and from the paths around the allotment.  I realised that wasn't really enough to make anything with so I asked my lovely neighbour if I could scrump some apples from her.  I have never in my life made jam before but I thought I would give it a go (eek!) I bought 2 lemons (because my lemon tree is teeny tiny and has no fruit on it yet) because I read that blackberries don't have any pectin in them and so you should use lemon juice. I put the peeled and cored apples (450g after prep) the blackberries and the juice of the 2 lemons into a pan and simmered it together for about 10 mins.  Then I added 900g sugar (normal granulated, not jam sugar) and raised it to a rolling boil for another 10 mins.  In the meantime I chilled 2 plates in the freezer and washed 2 jam jars before putting them in the oven at 150oC to sterilise.  After 10 mins I put 1 teaspoon of the jam onto one of the chilled plates but it didn't wrinkle so I boiled it for another 3 mins and then did the wrinkle test again and it worked - I was sooooo excited.  I left the jam to cool for about half an hour before ladling it into the 2 jam jars AND IT SET!!!! 


The kids then had the little bit that was left on their toast and told me that it's nicer than the bought stuff.  Middle L told me I should sell it on eBay lol

I am ridiculously proud of myself, I know that most allotment people make jams and chutneys all the time but I have never done it before and I have read about how difficult it is to get jam to set.  I thought the lemons might work but I didn't really expect it to so yes, I'm ridiculously proud!

I'm away with work all week this week so I won't get to the plot at all during the week.  My lovely neighbour is going to pop up and water in the polytunnel for me but otherwise it will have to take care of itself.  Hopefully all will be well. Until next week then - happy gardening everyone :-)