Blackcurrant Jam

Just how long does it take to make Blackcurrant Jam.  That depends what one measures.  For just a bit of fun, I was thinking about this when I was gardening this morning.  I won't count the planting of the bushes, or the long drive to collect them from the growers...but if I count picking them, then sorting them, washing them, picking off the stems, but not the dried flower ends, this takes about 1 hour for a kilo of berries.  Then there is the boiling, the potting up, and the washing up, washing the kitchen floor etc....another hour and half, but it is all worthwhile I think....

This year the berries are particularly large and juicy, so I added very little water to cook the berries before adding the sugar.  However the crop is not high as the birds and squirrels have been at the bushes, but I did spend a hour or so trying to cover them in their own individual mesh cover one evening a couple of weeks ago.  The hardest part was trying to push the bamboos canes into the ground which was really hard.

Just as I love marmalade on my toast, hubby loves Blackcurrant jam, as well as stirred through yogurt.   Friday I made a few pots to 'lay down' in my preserve cupboard.  I might enter a jar in our Horticultural Club competition.