Blackberry and Apple Jam

It was such a lovely eveining on Thursday, probably the best day we have had all month, no wind, no rain, and a warm yellow glow coming from  a large blue expanse over our heads.

So the three of us, me, oh and short dog set off to Auchincruive Estate. normally less than 5 ins away from us down the bypass, with  5 plastic tubs, a pair of secateurs and a long sleeved jumper on to protect my arms.

We parked up and wandered round the edge of the field, finding blackberries (ok should be brambles here north of the border, but I'm English by parentage and they will always be blackberries to me) very sparsely populated, 1 here 2 there and 1 somewhere further along, but eventually with hubby trimming back bits to get into other bits, getting scratched and stung, we had filled the 5 tubs. I learnt my lesson last year when all my arms and hands swelled after touching the plants and getting stung by nettles so this year hubby did all the dangerous work.

the cooker I left for OH to clean up

Took them home and soaked them to rid them off the fresh protein living inside them, and popped them into the fridge over night. Next day we stood in the kitchen with me peeling approx 8lb apples that we rounded up from the allotment, that oh cut up and popped 6 lb into the pressure cooker. Cooked them for approx 20mins and then added 3 lb blackberries, boiled for 15 mins, and which point it bubbled out all over the cooker, the work top and the tiles behind the cooker like a minimum volcano.

Then stirred in 6lb sugar (bit by bit, stirring as you go to dissolve sugar) and then boiling again until it reached setting point on my jam thermometer. Actually split it into 2 batches at this point as it would not all fit in my pressure cooker and unfortunately I no longer have a proper preserving pan.

looking very posh with its label and hat on

Jarred it up into warmed and sterilised jars, left to cool and lidded them up. Must admit it is very yummy, but then I love bitty blackberry jam and personally believe it is the best sort in the world


 Got 14 jars of jam, not bad for a bit of petrol, a free walk in the fresh air, 4lb suger @ £1.40 and about 2 hrs of time to get from raw ingredients into pots. This equals less than 20p a jar, with no added preservatives or other such nasty things added

The rest of the apples went with the pears into Pear and Apple crumble that we had with home made soya custard.