J is for Jam (and other things) Again

 Last year J was for Jam (and chutneys and relishes). I struggled to come up with something for this year. Do you know there are no villages in Suffolk that start with a J? The only things in my labels for J are jigsaw puzzles which I don't do anymore and jumble sales - and they are a rare happening now.

But then decided I could do J for Jam(and chutneys and relishes) again because this year some different things were made and at WI this week we had a man who recently retired from local government and started a small business - Swallowtail Preserves - making and selling jam, jellies, marmalade, chutney and pickles.

He was originally a scientist and had some handouts showing the pie charts of how chutney is made (evaporation, caramelisation etc) which went over my head - don't need to know the science - just the recipe and the taste! He spoke about the hoops he had to jump through to get permission to set up as a business. I knew some of this from doing the Hygiene certificate and District Council kitchen inspection back in smallholding days when I made and sold for WI country markets and at the gate. Things are even stricter now with more rules about labelling.

He gets much of his produce from a relative who has a smallholding and makes around 30 different things. To have enough orange marmalade, his best seller, he has to buy enough Seville oranges in January to fill a chest freezer.

I bought a jar of lemon and lime marmalade to make a change from my homemade - which is always the cheats marmalade from tins of prepared fruit.

 

Meanwhile back in my own kitchen I tried a small batch of something new - Mango and Apricot chutney - to finish up the dried apricots that were bought in the summer  for marrow and apricot jam. 

I usually do a mango and  sweet pepper chutney to go with curries and to give away but didn't this year due to the problem of something eating the peppers - and I had a jar left from last year anyway.

I'd photocopied the recipe from somewhere ages ago and made half measures which still seemed to contain a lot of sugar. The recipe also had grated fresh ginger but as I'd made some other gingery things through the year I left that out. It used garlic cloves and chopped chilli pepper so has plenty of ooomph even without the ginger.

It is quite a sticky chutney - very similar to the red onion 'marmalade' chutney in consistency and Oh My Goodness it's absolutely delicious - even straight away. Suddenly becoming my new favourite chutney! It will be made again for sure.

Other things I've done this year which haven't been made before were the 'Compost Jelly' - mainly made from blackberries and apple peelings and over ripe plums. That's also delicious and will definitely be made again. Also new to me were pickled gherkins and the sweet and sour cucumber pickle. I won't bother with growing and pickling gherkins again but the cucumber pickle is good.

Plenty of preserves made for me and to put into the Christmas Hampers.

Back Monday

Sue