Every summer, National Preserving Awareness Week invites families, gardeners, chefs, and food enthusiasts to rediscover the art of preserving. The week-long celebration encourages people to forage the hedgerows and pick from their garden nature’s gifts to make jams, chutneys, pickles, and bottled delights.
There is no mystery to jam or pickling making, it’s a recipe that includes a pinch of planning, a dollop of effort, and a large dose of trial and error. And the results, perfect or not, can still be eaten.
I was fortunate to come from a family of cooks, so having a jam pan was a standard piece of kitchen equipment when I grew up, and a must-have utensils in my own home. I don’t remember ever being shown how to make jams or chutneys, compared with clear memories of being taught by my mum how to lightly crumb the flour and fat mix for pastry, or how to master the figure of eight movement for cake making.
Over the years, I’ve given things a go from cider making, rhubarb juice, kimchi, sauerkraut, fruited and clear jams, to piccalilli and chutney. Some have been more successful than others, with many becoming gifts.
Like most hobbies, there is something that draws you to it time and time again. For me, preserving feels like bottling the warmth and laughter of the summer, the sound of nature, and the promise of good things to come. It’s my very own time capsule of memories.
When my kids were still in Primary School, for a few years we used to join two other families for an en-masse raspberry picking in our local woods. After a morning of picking, we’d traipse back to our house, leaving the 3 adults to make jam and scones, leaving the 7 kids to watch a film.
This month, after a wonderful holiday in Poland I was inspired to make sauerkraut, something we seemed to be offered with every meal. It was my way of keeping the memories alive just that bit longer.
This time of year, you’ll still find wild raspberries along the lanes whether you are living in the countryside or city (cycle paths are often great for this). Or you can pick up the end of day discounted fruit at your local shop, perfect for giving jamming a go.
You may not have inherited a jam pan, but any thick bottom pan will do, as long as it’s deep enough to allow the jam to bubble up half its size again. The rule of thumb is equal fruit to sugar, so scaling is up to you. The only other ingredient often recommended is lemon juice to help the jam set. And that’s it.
YouTube clips will guide you on the finer points of ‘how-to’. But the ‘why’ is up to you. So why not bottle some summer memories this week, and you never know, what you may be inspired to do next.