Porridge is the fuel that gets my legs spinning every morning. And nothing goes better with said porridge than a tablespoon or three of sticky, sweet jam. Having consumed my own bodyweight in supermarket-bought jam over the last few months (evidenced by the vast collection of empty pots on top of the kitchen cabinets) this weekend I decided to try producing my own cycling rocket fuel.
We have a bramley apple tree in the back garden and yesterday I enlisted the help of a friend to harvest its ripe fruit. This was quite fun and involved a step-ladder, a pokey-stick and some climbing and branch-shaking. After an hour we had two large cardboard boxes full of apples.
Ripe bramleys
Today, Ms BikeVCar and I went for a muddy adventure in search of blackberries. It turned out that we were slightly early for blackberry season but we foraged a healthy sized tub of berries and will know where to go in a couple of weeks time for a full harvest.
Berry picking required some intensive foraging
The berry stash begins to grow
As well as nettles and brambles there was a lot of mud to negotiate
Stuck in the mud!
Back home it was surprisingly straightforward to make the jam. I followed this guy’s recipe which basically involved peeling and coring the apples, boiling them up with a little water, adding the blackberries, then an obscene amount of sugar and a touch of spice. After half an hour of boiling and stirring I had produced a thick paste of vibrant bloody red which smelled great. After making sure it had properly jammed up I decanted the mixture into a few sterilised jars (which I may have unsterilised by wiping jam off the inside of the lids and licking my fingers) and then stored them in the garage for future enjoyment.
A lovely rich reddy jamness
The end product – can’t wait to taste it
Love this on so many levels … having a “pokey-stick” is vital. I envy you the Bramleys, as they are non-existent over here. Oh, and for Ms. Bikevcar, fond memories of XC and “getting stuck in the mud”. Multi-talented Mr. Bikevcar! I see an entry in the village fete in your future x x x
I have a multitude of pokey-sticks and other bits of ‘useful’ timber in our new garage, aka ‘the man cave’
How neat must have been fun.. I bet the jam was yummy fresh apples and blackberries can’t get any better.
The recipe said to leave it for 6 – 12 months but I can’t wait that long! Plus my suspect-sterilisation probably means I shouldn’t either. I’ll let you know in a couple of months!