How to make your own jam or jelly from homegrown fruit in 10 minutes - Gardening with Brendan

This summer has been unusual one weather-wise but the persistent showers and odd warm sunny spell have resulted in a bumper harvest when it comes to juicy summer fruits, in my garden at least. So much so that I’ve ended up with too many berries, and rather than let them go to rot, I thought I’d try my hand at making a jam preserve from some of the leftovers.

The birds made short work of the redcurrants as soon as they ripened as they do every year, but the past few weeks has delivered an abundance of strawberries and gooseberries, even though I only have a couple of the former in pots and one of the latter in the ground. So after picking the fruit carefully (gooseberry bushes are full of thorns so it’s advisable to wear gloves) and washing it, it was off to the shop to pick up some sugar. I was surprised to find you can get lots of different sugars with pectin added specifically for making fruit sauces, jams and jellies. For those who don’t know, pectin is the naturally occurring fibre found in fruit and some other plants which, when cooked, releases and acts as a thickening agent. Many foods and even medicine products make use of pectin as a setting agent, often from apples or the rind of different citrus fruits, and it is also commonly used as a vegan or vegetarian alternative to the animal product, gelatine.

Different fruits have different pectin levels and adding a squeeze of lemon juice can boost the pectin levels and ensure the end result works out OK.

For my jam I’m using gooseberries, which are high in pectin and strawberries, which have less pectin. But you could use any fruit really, and you could add in some edible flower petals for a more interesting looking end result or flavours, such as lavender flowers, if you wished.

I’ve never made a proper fruit jam myself before but it turned out to be extremely simple and quick to do and it won hands down in terms of taste compared to any I’ve ever bought in a shop.

Ingredients: Fruit of your choice or whatever you have a lot of- if you are not growing your own you can even do it with inexpensive bags of frozen berries or fresh fruit from the supermarket, sugar (look for one with pectin if you can but any sugar will do the trick), and 25ml of water.

Method: Get a saucepan and add the water. Wash the fruit and remove any stalks and add the fruit to the water. Turn on the heat to full and add in sugar equal to the amount of fruit you have- for example 1lb of sugar to 1lb of fruit. You can also adjust the sugar content if you like things very sweet or less sweet.

Turn on the heat to full and bring to the boil. Keep stirring the mixture as it boils. At this stage pay attention to the time.

Time: The longer you boil the mixture, the thicker it is likely to set but all it needs to create jam is to be boil for around 4 minutes, stirring consistently. If you are looking for a more pourable, fruit sauce or to create a jelly, only boil for a minute or two and then take it off the heat. Then just let it stand and cool down. Be careful not to try to taste it at this stage as it will be piping hot and could cause burns.

Storage and uses: Once almost completely cooled I spread some of the mixture on toast and drizzled some of it over vegan salted vanilla ice cream. It tasted amazing. At this stage it was still a little runny and I poured and spooned the remainder into an old glass coffee jar with the lid off to let it cool down fully. As it cooled, the jam continued to set and was eventually as sturdy as any in the shops. Best of all it is totally natural, and while it may not last as long as many brand name jams as there are no additional additives or preservatives, it will keep fine for several weeks at least. And it is so versatile, as just like any jam it can be used as cake filling, in porridge, with bread or scone, to make jam tarts. sponge or pudding, to make chutneys, with yogurt, ice cream and it will even pair well with hot and cold savoury dishes. And best of all if you are using fresh fruit you’ve grown yourself, or even frozen fruit, it will likely taste far, far superior in any or all of these dishes to jars purchased from the shops. And if you’ve made a lot of it, the end product can be sold on or given away as mini gifts to friends and family.

There’s a real sense of achievement in getting something back out of gardening. Starting to get creative with homegrown produce is often far easier than you might think, and you might just surprise yourself if, like me, you are a novice and take a punt on giving it a whirl yourself.

‘Til next week!