Friday 17 February 2012

Making Jam...


Jerry and I decided to take a few days off to go camping and explore another part of this beautiful state. We found upon a sweet little spot called Wee Jasper, a wee little tiny village nestled in the foothills of the Brindabella ranges. We camped along the idyllic Micalong creek where we fished (unsuccessfully), swam and discovered an abundant grove of wild blackberries.




Yes, blackberries are considered an awful weed. Working as a bush regenerator in Sydney, to us, they are considered a GREAT pest and an even bigger pest to dig out and poison. However, I was able to take my bush regenerator hat off and taste the sweet deliciousness of the blackberry. We ended up picking about 2 – 3 kilos of berries and whilst I probably ate enough to make me feel slightly ill, we decided to take our berries back to our camp site and make some delicious jam.



For some strange reason, I always thought making jam was a difficult thing, reserved for CWA ladies and grandmothers who had their method down pat. Ohh, was I mistaken. Jam is so incredibly easy, I don’t know why anyone would not do it and I cannot believe that it took me until 22 years of age to realise the satisfaction in making your own jam; especially with fruit you picked yourself.



So in our first batch we used about 5 cups of berries to about 3-4 cups of sugar. So you bring the berries and sugar to the boil until the sugar is dissolved, skim off any excess foam off the top. And continue to boil until the jam thickens slightly. A good indicator is to put a teaspoon of jam onto a cold plate, let it cool and run your finger through. If the the juice wrinkles than it should be ready. A squeeze of lemon can also be added or some pection (available from the supermarket) to ensure no fail jam setting. 

crush berries and combine with sugar.


And then we went a little crazy eating with the jam eating. We couldn't make damper because of a fire ban but we got ourselves some delicious bread and lathered it with butter and blackberry jam...



Valentine's day breakfast of blackberry porridge





3 comments:

  1. you guys are ridiculously cute. RIDICULOUS. XXXXXXX

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meg this is awesome. I can't believe how close you were to our place, The Poplars at Brindabella. Let me know next time you will be in the Wee Jasper neighbourhood and maybe you can pop into The Poplars too. We have plenty of blackberries too and I've never thought of making jam with them, just poisoning them! Maybe we'll have a go at this on our next visit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Michelle, you should really consider picking them. I know they are a terrible weed but they are delicious fruit and it was so fun making the jam whilst camping. That area is such a gorgeous part of this state. The drive out from Canberra and looking over to the Brindabella's is so beautiful. You guys are so lucky to have a property down there. We would like to get back there sometime this year.

      Delete