Making jam is probably my favourite form of cooking. Once you know how it is done, it is so easy, it makes everything smell amazing, the colours are beautiful, and most importantly, it tastes incredible.
The first one is Spiced Peach, inspired by the book Peaches for Monsieur le Cure by Joanne Harris. As soon as I read her description of this jam as a jar full of summer in the cold depths of winter, I didn't just want to taste it, I wanted to make it too. Jam making should be messy and delicious and fun, and that is exactly what she describes.
I particularly love the blushing peachy pink the bubbles turn when the jam is boiling, it looks so pretty!
Then eventually it turns into a rich, golden orange colour that looks like Autumn leaves
The second one I made was Blackberry and Apple, as we had some in the freezer that were left over from mine and Mum's Autumnal scrabblings around Rother Valley Country Park. I got covered in juice, scratched, and jumped on by an excitable chocolate brown Labrador (which was a highlight) but it was worth it for the taste.
The recipe comes courtesy of a Women's Own Australia Preserves cookbook my Mum bought from a charity shop. I can't help but imagine an excitable Australian women holding up a large jar saying 'This one's got a tarantula suspended in it!' Probably just me reading too much Terry Pratchett...
This mix turns a particularly delightful deep purpley-red colour, which doesn't show up in the jar, but looks fantastic in the pot and on toast.
It suddenly came to me once I had put this wonderful gloop into their jars that it would appear particularly fabulous and Christmasy if I had bought edible gold and silver glitter to add to them! It would make the peach look even more like an Autumn tree and the blackberry like a beautiful winter's night sky filled with stars. Maybe next time...
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