Adventures with Jam!

On Bank Holiday weekend, Rosie and I went to stay with her Grandad, Reg, who lives in the tiny village of Campsea Ashe in Suffolk. The hedgerows in the fields near his house are full of ripe damsons (or wild plums... can anyone explain the difference?) and sloes. We picked loads to bring home, along with some early apples from Reg's garden. On the way back we stopped off at 'Jimmy's Farm' (of TV fame) to feed some sheep, see the pigs and the herb/veg garden and buy some fresh organic pork (Rosie's a veggie but I still buy organic meat from farms if I know it's had a good life).



We'd be hoping to pick lots of blackberries but they're not ripe in Suffolk yet. We made up for it this weekend by picking a few kilos in Kingsley on Sat along with more sloes. We got surrounded by a herd of about 30 curious cows at one point who kept trying to creep up to us by the hesdge before following us all the way accross the feild, keeping about 5 paces behind the whole time. Although it was quite funny, there was also something slightly unerving about a gang of cows breathing down your neck!



Once back at Rosie's we made 12 jars of sweet damson jam, a lovely Apple and Blackberry crumble and a few litres of sloe gin. On Sunday we noticed a heavy cropping wild greengage tree oppposite her house, so had to make a few jars of that before going on to make of 10 bramble jam and 3 spiced apple chutney. Mmmm.... I ate so much jam this weekend!



In other news, Henry and I are going down to see our new allotment tomorrow night! Going to measure it up and then go down the pub to mull over our plans...