Despite the cold wet spring that last few days of warmth have helped the fruit to ripen at last. Gooseberries which I always pick green for the pectin they hold have been ready for a week or two and at last the strawberries are ripening too. Making a disgustingly early start I took Pa a coffee at seven and set about the bread making,two split tins, a bloomer and two baguettes for today.
When my son arrived home from work I gave him breakfast and we chatted while Pa collected himself and as soon as my son went off to bed Pa was up and ready for his breakfast,second sitting.
The first real jam making session of the year has an excitement all its own, I think it has a lot to do with the alchemy of turning raw fruits in to a gorgeous substance sticky sweet which will give us the taste of the fruits we love all through the winter months.
Jars in the oven sterilising,lids scalded and in the maslin pan four pounds of strawberries
one pound of gooseberries, the juice of a lemon and three pounds of sugar......at this point a remembered that I had broken my sugar thermometre at the end of last year and had forgotten to buy another.
Of course there are other ways of testing if setting point has been reached, dropping a little hot jam on to a cold plate usually works but when the weather is very hot this method can be unreliable.,In the end I took my best guess and fortunately it was good enough, the jam set perfectly.....Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!
Once again the garden called and I went willingly and glad of heart in to the warm sunshine there to plant out chives, gourds and salad plants. Amazingly the seeds sown over the weekend have germinated and I now have six short roes of radish, rocket salads and beets, warm humid weather may be sticky and horrid but at this time of year it makes me rejoice, nature is helping again and all is well.
Back in the kitchen I fired up the wok and made a pork Nd vegetable stir fry with noodles and everyone enjoyed it I am happy to say. Now wearing the end of this busy day I feel happy, of all days I like best the days when I make,,or bake or garden, imagine my delight on a day when I have managed to do all three. I can snuggle up in bed remembering the rich red glow of the jars of new jam,the crusty tasty bread and the wonderful shower of rain which came just as I had finished planting and watered in the tender seedlings. Life is sweet.
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