[upnorth]

Mr and Mrs Blackbird have had an early morning feast on the redcurrents. Yesterday evening we were looking at them and saying we would pick them tomorrow. Well tomorrow came and when I went out at 9am the pair had eaten loads of redcurrants. So...... with what has been picked this morning, is it a good mix with blackcurrants and strawberries. It would be roughly 1/4  each of red and black and half strawbs.  The blackcurrants have all been picked now and not much to make blackcurrant jam alone, the same with the strawberries, the last days of picking I think.
THEN it's the gooseberries! Luckily the birds don't seem to like them, so we have plenty of jam making days ahead still.

[BobE]

You only need 2k of fruit to get a good few jars of jam.
What weights have you picked?

[upnorth]

You only need 2k of fruit to get a good few jars of jam.
What weights have you picked?

redcurrants: 145g
blackcurrants: 295g
Strawberries: 565g

total 1005

I was wondering about the mix of fruit, would it be tasty?  There will be more redcurrants in maybe three days time, but would like to jam whilst these are fresh, in case they start to turn.

[BobE]

You can freeze them until more becomes available.  Just bag them seperatley and freeze them.

[BobE]

If you don't get more, wait till you can pick some wild berries.  The redcurrants, black currants with another berry   will make a lovely Summer pudding.  Delia says raspberries but you can use any fruits really.  If you freeze then you can make Summer Pudding in the Winter.


http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/summer-fruit/summer-pudding.html

[upnorth]

If you don't get more, wait till you can pick some wild berries.  The redcurrants, black currants with another berry   will make a lovely Summer pudding.  Delia says raspberries but you can use any fruits really.  If you freeze then you can make Summer Pudding in the Winter.


http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/summer-fruit/summer-pudding.html


Sadly in Orkney we don't get wild blackberries. No wild berries, other than blaeberries and they are hard to find. Think it will be a mixture of strawbs and rasps. The blackcurrants I will maybe make into a small (very small) pie

[VegGirl7]

I was wondering about the mix of fruit, would it be tasty?  There will be more redcurrants in maybe three days time, but would like to jam whilst these are fresh, in case they start to turn.

Blackcurrants & strawberries mixed makes lovely jam.  the last batch I made I used less blackcurrants than strawbs and it worked well - I'd be temped to use those &  freeze the redcurrants until you have more.

[Val H]

A bit dubious about the quantities........redcurrants, blackcurrants high in pectin but the strawberries aren't. I'd normally say for a kilo of fruit means 1 kilo of sugar but am unsure it will set as there are more strawberries. I think the combination would work but would add some crab or cooking apples into the mix.

[BobE]

Listning to Val.  Could you buy some more blackcurrants, just to up the ratios.  Freeze the redcurrants until you get more.  Then use apples to make a blackcurrant & apple jam.
Later make redcurrant jam.
( I tried to find you on Google maps, you are a long way north!!)