We didn’t have such a bumper crop of plums this year and the soft fruit we have harvested has either been eaten fresh or preserved by freezing. Berries can be frozen on baking parchment and then tipped into a bag for easy storage and labelling until you pull them out, either for cooking or to dish up with ice cream (or in novelty drinks).

However, I finally done a little jam making for 2018 – crab apple and blackcurrant jelly. The blackcurrants were from the freezer but the crab apples were relatively fresh. Relatively – they were getting to the point where it was time to use them or lose them! I chopped out the worst bits then simmered the fruit with a lemon skin left over from a different recipe (acid gets the pectin working, I believe). That was left draining through muslin overnight and this morning I added sugar (roughly 3 parts sugar to 4 parts juice) and boiled until it reach a setting point.

Total yield? Probably enough for a couple of rounds of toast… but at least I’ve done a little jam making this year.