Jammy weekend...

[Bacchus]

Maybe too much gas for a liveaboard, but possibly on hook-up?

 

GF Bacchus has been making Jam this weekend; down to the woods, a few kilos of blackberries and a few kilos of damsons.

 

Sugar at only 0.60p a kilo in Sainsbury's, we now have nearly three dozen jars of jam, ingredients - free fruit and cheap sugar.

 

Bacchus has been making damson rum... Free fruit, cheap sugar, cheap(ish) white rum, should be ready for Christmas, ho ho ho!

 

Chistmas gifts or Christmas treats, either way does anyone else harvest nature's bounty?

 

[Peter X]

I do, but I have the advantage of being in a house with a gas supply, which I suppose works out cheaper than bottled gas?

 

Last year I started a topic "Plum Glut" about my efforts to make use of the glut of plums I had on my tree:

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=69191

This year I've got another heavy crop of plums and am struggling to use them all again. I made a batch of plum jam and a batch of beetroot and plum sweet and sour sauce last week. Tonight I branched out to make Chinese Plum Sauce, which I spilt over my knuckles while pouring into the bottles. It took me a few seconds to reach the cold tap, so now my hand hurts a lot. I hope the sauce is worth it.

 

I've got quite a lot of blackberries and could go and get more off MItcham Common if I felt like it, then over the next few weeks there will be huge amounts of pears then apples from my neighbour's trees; it's all getting a bit overwhelming. I already have more jam than I know what to do with, and need to come up with other uses.

 

For anyone who wants to make jam from what's available along the canals, apart from bramble jelly and plum jam (if you can find plums), other options in October/November are rosehip syrup, or a mix of hawthorn berries and apples. Hawthorn bushes seem to be very common along the offside on many canals, but it helps if you have one of those picker gadgets to make gathering them less time consuming.

[GoodGurl]

Damsons,Blackberries and Greengages here are bountiful also crab apples if you like them.