Jam Jam Jam

Well this was fun - oh so much fun!

Our mum has a glut of apples, they have done really well this year and my enterprising sister has exchanged lots with various farm shops in exchange for fruit and veg (most places in Norwich I've asked will do this). There is however many pounds worth left over. I was bought the amazing SelfSufficientish bible as a present and in it was a recipe for apple jam. Our father used to make themost amazing jam and every autumn when we were little our kitchen was converted into a jam factory, he used to make jams and jellies from greengages, plums, damsons, and some funny little round green things whose name i've forgotten. Mum used to make buckets of peach melba sauce which is in fact made only from raspberries.

So wondering if jam making is gnetic, yesterday my little sis and I got down to the very messy business of making apple and ginger jam, we did 8lbs of fruit and ended up with about 10/11lbs of jam. It took two of us 4 hours from start to finish and I think we'll be trying other fruit. Next weekend I'd like to make some beetroot chutney, and i think we might plan the veg patch around what we can and can't preserve. Our cousin gets hundreds of plums and next year we'll pounce on them and jam them. It does take time and effort, and the jam sugar is about £1.50 a Kg (about 2lbs). We got about 20 jam covers from Roys for about a pound, although these could be bought cheaper in bulk i'm sure. The really wacky thing is the variety of pots we found, ex tomato juice glass jars are superb, as are beetroot pots.

We're doing waste free week this week but not entirely certain how to avoid the packaging which meat (even the hapy organic chicken) come in. Ideas welcome. Our compost bin is no up and running, just in time to put all the cleared veg plants in. Tasty though the squash was, we only got one HUGE butternut, and one little one, I think next year we'll just stick to one plant and not four - they take up serious room! A colleague of mine grew his squash up a vine & it was a much better use of space.

Take a look at Rocket Gardens whose web site is great and they will happily answer questions quickly and clearly. Its a brilliant idea, we don't have the room to get plants started propoerly but Rocket Gardens get the plants started in their greenhouses and harden them off for ready planting. We were going to get the winter veg garden but in fact I'm going to put some fertilizer in the ground and get the soil better prepared for early planting next year. We're in two minds are to where to plant the onion - in seperate troughs or in eth soil with eth other veg. 'Him' is worried about mould.