All in a Jam

 

 

We've not had too many fruit and veg gluts this year, but courgettes certainly provided us with a challenging mountain, as did rhubarb and pumpkins. There's only a certain amount of any foodstuff you can eat within the space of a few weeks and competition for freezer space is always tight.

So we've found that we need to diversify, and one of the best ways for keeping fruit and vegetables is making preserves. Just about anything can be made into a jam, chutney or relish and there's plenty of scope for experimentation. The end product is usually delicious and totally incomparable to what's available in the shops.
I now have a range of luxury preserves to feast on during the year and there's plenty left over to sell.

We left London to avoid the jams!

And this is exactly what Sue was preparing for in the photo, for this weekend marked her school's Christmas Fayre, a great chance to sell some of the excess preserves we've made through the year.
Best seller last year was Sue's Red Onion Marmalade, but the onion harvest was disappointing this year so our eager punters will have to wait another year for more. But the Beetroot Relish and the Rhubarb Chutney sold very well and the children went for the Toffee Apple Spread.
Surprisingly the Pear Jam sold none. This means that I get to eat all of it, so good news in a way.

Having said that, we're only just getting to grips with the unpredictable nature of selling produce. Another time, quite the opposite could be true. We'd run out of the pear jam and have loads of beetroot relish left.

At the end of the day, it's just a way of funding a hobby. But hopefully it brings a little joy into the mouths of others. It is always delightful when somebody raves about the taste of one of our very own products.