The joy of Jam

I took advantage of the wonderful (if a little watery) Autumn sun yesterday a decided to tackle the fruit garden at the end of the orchard. I had let the lambs have a go at it during the week and they had done a great job of eating down the grass and pruning the soft fruit canes.

Blossom likes raspberries too

I thinned the raspberry bush out, then fed and replanted the spare canes with a little help from Blossom. This is my first year of growing soft fruits and, like all my gardening, it tends to be based on trial and error. If you want to know more about caring for your fruit bushes, or any of your plants, then check out Roger’s blog.

My raspberry canes are the Joan J variety and have produced some lovely large fruits - and even some double and triple fruits. I have been collecting a handful each day through the end of the summer (if Blossom doesn’t get there first) and freezing them in anticipation of making jam.

The great thing about harvesting and storing fruit like this, is that you can collect up all your fruit throughout the fruiting season and then make your jam in late autumn or winter.  It’s worth noting that not all soft fruits can be frozen in this way.

I collected a three pounds of fruit in total from just one large bush and hope that the canes I have replanted produce lots more next year. Preserving my produce into little pots of colour gives me a wonderful taste of summer all year round.

For a quick and easy jam recipe try this one.  

The chickens are always trying to 'help' in the garden!