Raspberry picking, eating and jam

A couple of weekends ago we hopped it down the M4 to the vast PYO Grays Farm in Wokingham. It is a proper working farm with no frills or slick farm shop, which actually caught me unawares as I had planned to buy something there for Matilda's lunch. Oops. She was happy surviving on freshly picked raspberries thankfully.

There weren't too many strawberries left but the raspberries were juicy, ruby red and delicious. Perfect for Jam.



This recipe is from the Good food website, the only difference is I added a handful of ripe strawberries I had hanging around the fridge and, worked a treat.
  1. Before you start, sterilise your jars (give them a good wash in hot soapy water, dry and stick them on a tray in a warm oven until they're dry), and put a plate in the freezer to chill. Tip half the raspberries into a preserving pan and add the lemon juice. Mash the berries to a pulp over the heat with a potato masher, then leave to cook for 5 mins. Tip the cooked berries into a sieve over a bowl, then once all of the juice has drained off, firmly work the pulp through the sieve with a wooden spoon until you are left with just the seeds.
  2. Tip the juice and pulp back into the preserving pan and stir in the sugar. Heat gently, then add the remaining whole raspberries. Bring to the boil, then boil rapidly for 5 mins. Remove from the heat and drop a little jam onto the chilled plate. Now push your finger through it - it should wrinkle and look like jam. If it doesn't, boil for 2 mins, then test again.
  3. The top of the jam may look like it has sediment on it, but I find that if you stir it well as it cools, a little of this disappears. Pour into the jars and seal. It will keep unopened for a year, although the lovely bright colour will darken a little. Once open, keep in the fridge.
Take a look at the beautiful rich red colour of this jam. Go forth and make, you won't regret it!


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