Makin' Jam - The Easy Peasy Way

I am not domesticated. Sometimes I cook. Sometimes I clean. Sometimes I think I can make jam. No hang on... I actually CAN make jam. The easy peasy way. All you need is Fruit, Jam Sugar, A blob of butter, Some clean Jam Jars, and a splash of Pimm's (totally optional)

So, we went fruit picking at Ansty Farm in Dorset. We spent a couple of hours picking berries, talking to the pig and naming the chickens (this was fatal for all future chicken dinners, as now every dinner is called Doris, but Hey Ho.)

The STASH - Blackberries and Raspberries - around 1.2kg cost us £6 ish

Sweet little fruit picker :) 

Mash them up in a big pot

Use some of this fabulous Jam Sugar. We used 900g for 1.2kg of fruit

Turn the heat on Low to Medium, and stir it all together gently. DO NOT BOIL! Stir until sugar dissolves, this took 10-15 minutes.

That's how low the heat was. Also showing you my revolting pot - I told you I'm not domesticated :)

DO NOT ADD OLIVES! I just got bored waiting for the sugar to dissolve, so I chomped on these to pass the time. Almond stuffed Olives - Nom Nom

It was around this time I also realised we had no butter, so a dollop of Olive spread had to suffice.

This is my Dollop.
Add it to the pot and stir until it melts.

THEN.... CRANK UP THE HEAT BABY! Boil for exactly FOUR minutes. Boil the hell out of it. So it 'can't be stirred down' as it says on the packet.

Have some hot,clean, boiled, sterilised jars ready to pour the jam into. 

Scrape the SCUM off the top, there wasn't that much to be honest. But we do like SCUMLESS jam around here. If you want to add a splash of Pimm's, I would do it round about now.

Because I have an ill-equipped kitchen, I don't have Canning equipment, so I used this dangerous method of holding ones hot jars with ones kitchen tea towel, thus dripping burning jam onto ones hands and screaming ones house down.

 It wasn't THAT bad. If you go careful - you'll be fine. Ladle the jam in, leave about 0.5cm gap at the top of the jar and seal as quick as you can. I bought some Printed Cottagey labels from ebay, and whacked those on the front too - I didn't get a pic, but you get my gist. We made 8 jars of jam out of 1.2kg of fruit. Not bad I say old chap!

NOM NOM - seriously - its LUSH

Scones anyone?

Enjoy!

*ps... if you're domesticated... you'll have a safer way of doing this... I don't.. but I got there in the end*