We're jammin'

There's something very satisfying about growing and picking your own fruit (and I picked nearly one and a half kilos of blackcurrants off the one bush in its first year of production.)

I picked out all the leaves and stalks and mixed the lovely fat, dark berries with water and sugar.

Simmered them in my lovely new jam making pan...

...and now we have ten jars of lovely blackcurrant jam. I'm still astonished every time the jam 'works'. I worry about it not setting, or setting too much or burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan, but all is fine and I'm told the jam is the best I have made so far (my children always say that!)

The alchemy of jam-making will always be something of a miracle to me, like planting a seed which then becomes a sweet pea or sunflower, or burying a potato and then digging up a bountiful crop later.