Sunday blackberry picking = Jam!

We all decided to go blackberry picking  yesterday afternoon, as I have noticed everything is fruiting early this year, and we were pleasantly suprised, We got 4lb of fruit in just under 1 1/2 hrs, not bad! I shall be back in a couple of weeks to pick more as there were stashes that are red and ripening. I noticed there were also lots of elderberries and sloe berries, has anyone made jam out of these before?

I  thoroughly washed all the fruits and de- thorned as soon as I got home yesterday, and stored in the fridge overnight.

I bought my sugar this morning and got to work on making jam.

You will need:

A big heavy bottomed preserving pan
Sugar thermometer (optional)
Saucer placed in the fridge

Its an equal ratio of sugar to fruit so I had:

4lbs blackberries
2 kg Jam sugar (or preserving sugar-both have pectin)
1/2 pint water.

Tip all the blackberries in the pan, pour the water over and bring up to a simmer and cook gently for 10 mins, then add all the sugar, and bring up to a rolling boil on maximum heat, it should still be boiling high up in the pan even when you stir it, it should look like this:

 Do this for 10 mins, then test for setting point,  spoon a little jam onto the cold saucer and push your finger through it , if it wrinkles or doesn't run back in then it's ready, or take off the heat when your thermometer reaches 220 F jam stage.

I got 8 jars out of this, so 8 jars of quality jam for the cost of £3.50, so am I am best pleased, the only down side was getting stung badly in the nettles , thank god that dock leaves are always in abundance to relieve the stinging, I also had loads of minute thorns embedded in my fingers, had to tweezer them out so a little sore today, but was worth it!

Go raid your hedgerows, and make jam, it's easy free and delicious!

These roses are gorgeous are they not?

They are a two tone pink blush, I cut them from my mums garden, they originally came from  my nan's garden, so I have now taken some cuttings and poked them into some soil, hope they take, great to have free roses for the jug, £10 for 6 in supermarket yesterday, Rip Off!!

Hope you had a happy productive weekend. :)

A week in North Wales

We had a lovely week last week in North Wales, the scenery was just beautiful, and we had hot weather every single day, which I've never experienced any other time I have been there, no horrid humidity though, like you get in Essex.

Old watermill half way up to the cottage

My paternal grandmother, who passed away 13 years ago used to live in Blaenau Ffestiniog on a mountain, with waterfalls and streams, and at the top of her road  there are massive slate mountains which we would climb over and play beyond, in the ruins, the sheep were tame too, and we loved stroking them.

Stream on the hill

Dylan trying to find  a spot to fill water

There was a horse called Lona in the field directly opposite my nan's cottage, who was largely neglected by her owner, but my nan took care of her, made sure she had plenty of hay, and food, even though she was quite poor herself. I  adored that horse, and would stand out in the rain just being close to her , stroking her mane, if I couldn't see her I would call her and she would come galloping down from the hills, those were the days....I would have taken her home if I could.

Nan's old cottage

 Everything is the same there, but very overgrown, and neglected like no one cares about it anymore, the stream outside the cottage was so overgrown it was difficult to get a bottle down there to sample the fresh water.
 It seemed very strange doing the walk up the long road to the cottage with my children, I felt strangely possessive of it, as if it was my territory only, my childhood secret place, my  boys didn't seem too think it was anything special, this saddened me quite a bit, but teenagers these days have so much that just having somewhere to explore and play like that just isn't that 'Special' when you consider all the games on computer and all other gadgets etc. My little girl loved it though!

Boys climbing the slate mountain

We visited the harbour of Portmadog whish was nice, had some lovely shops with lots of the local Portmerion pottery.

My kind of shopping!

Snowman heaven! there was a Gruffalo section too...

Betws-y-Coed

The most beautiful place however was Betws-y- Coed, it's like a picture postcard, the kids played in the streams climbing the rocks, and we visited the little railway.

We stayed in Prestatyn, which was nothing special, but was a good site with fantastic swimming pools for the kids, and a lovely beach, our caravan was right beside the dunes, so nice views and sunsets. I didn't venture to the clubhouse ever, I don't do clubhouses. Vile. We had our I pod, and a fridge stocked up with booze, NICE.

Path outside the caravan to the dunes

Sand angel

I won't be venturing to Wales anytime soon though, it takes forever to get anywhere, and I don't like long car journeys, but always make exception when it's Cornwall, we are having a weeks break in September, can't wait!