Gooseberry Jam

Who doesn't love summertime?  I love long warm evenings sitting on the patio, all of the vibrant colours and flowers, the more relaxed feeling, and especially all of the fantastic fresh produce.  There are so many fantastic fruits and vegetables that are in season during the summer.

I don't remember ever eating gooseberries before moving to Britain.  They're certainly a very British fruit, but I've grown to love them.  It's a bit late for gooseberries really now, but you may still be able to find fresh ones.  I have a gooseberry bush, but unfortunately didn't get any fruit off of it this year. (My gooseberry bush died from the extreme cold this winter and then my toddler repeatedly digging it up during the spring, so we recently bought a small new bush to replace it.  Hopefully we'll have home-grown gooseberries again next summer.)

My family went to a nearby farm to pick our gooseberries.  I love pick-your-own farms, and even if you don't garden yourself, it's really satisfying to pick your own fruit and veg.  I promise it makes it taste better.  I particularly love Ganger Farm.  My husband and I started going there as newlyweds, and we've kept going over the years.  Now our kids love picking (well, mostly eating) fruit there.

Gooseberries are funny little fruits.  The bushes have big, hard thorns, and are--I think--always a bit scrubby looking.  Most people will recommend wearing leather gloves when you pick gooseberries to protect yourself from prickles.  I prefer doing it without the gloves and just being careful.  It makes it easier to maneuver through the bush after the best fruit and to handle the fruit gently.  The fruit itself is green and kind of hairy looking.  Gooseberries taste quite tart on their own, and when ripe have an almost grape-like crunchiness to them.

My favourite way to eat gooseberries is to make gooseberry jam.  These tart little berries make a fantastic jam than you can save to enjoy all year long.  This is my daughter Miriam's favourite jam.

How To Make Gooseberry Jam

Before I begin making the jam, I get the jars ready.  You can buy jam jars, or just reuse any glass jar with a metal screw-on lid (preferably the type with the pop down seal).  You can also use Kilner style glass jars.  It just needs to have a good air-tight seal.  Always sterilize jars before using.

When you have your jam jars ready, prepare your fruit.  Wash it well and remove any extra leaves, stems, etc.  If desired, you can top and tail them.  I usually just pinch off the stem. 

Weigh the fruit, then add to a big pan.  Always use a bigger pan then you think you'll need because it will bubble and splash.  (If I followed my own advice on this, I'd save myself a lot of burnt fingers.)  Because gooseberries are quite firm, part cook them first.  Cook on high heat, stirring constantly.  They will start to release juice and break down.  You can use a potato masher to help break them down if you want to speed things along.  Cook just the gooseberries for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, stick a couple of small plates into the freezer to cool.  They'll later help you to test if the jam is set.

There's a simple truth that you have to accept about jam.  It uses a lot of sugar.  I've tried cutting down on the sugar content, and the results just weren't worth it.  For gooseberry jam, use equal parts fruit and sugar by weight.  This holds true no matter how many gooseberries you have.  So if, for example, you have 1 kg of gooseberries, add 1 kg of sugar.  You can buy fancy jamming sugars, but I just use plain white sugar.

Add the sugar to the fruit and continue to cook on high heat.  Stir constantly.  The sugar should melt and mix in with the fruit.  You can adjust the heat as needed, but it should stay at a rolling boil.  You'll notice a fantastic kind of alchemy as you make gooseberry jam.  You started off with prickly green fruits.  As they cook, though, the gooseberries turn a lovely pink and get a velvety texture.  It becomes really lovely and appetizing.  Cook until it starts to reduce.  How long this takes will depend on how big of a batch of jam you're cooking at once and the heat of your hob.

You can test the jam by putting a spoonful on one of the cold plates.  Run your finger through it.  If it immediately rushes in to fill the gap, it's not ready yet.  If it makes a puckery kind of line through the jam, it's ready.  Don't wait until it's already perfectly set because it will set further after you turn off the heat and jar it.

When it's ready, you can jar it.  I really recommend using a jam funnel.  It will help to keep the edges of the jar clean so that you get a better seal, and just makes the whole process easier.  You want to put the jam into the jars and then put on the lids as quickly as possible.  If it cools too much, the jars won't seal.  You can do it by yourself, but it's definitely easier if you have two people working on this stage.  Your jam will look absolutely beautiful in the jar.

Then you're finished.  Leave the jars to cool and just check that the jars have taken, or sealed, later in the day.  You can make labels to add, and then stick in the cupboard for whenever you want some lovely jam.  This will liven up any piece of toast.

And there you have it: gooseberry jam.  This really is one of my favourite parts of the summer.  It may seem crazy to make your own jam, but it really doesn't take as long as it seems, and the jam is so much better than anything store bought.  It was a really lovely process picking the gooseberries together as a family, and then my husband and I made the jam together after the girls went to bed that evening.

Damson Jam

A house down the street from us has a bucket by the street with a sign that says "Free Damsons". These very generous neighbours of ours have several fruit trees, and they always give away the windfall for other people to enjoy. They even put out little plastic punnets so that you have something to take the fruit away in.

We decided to use our free fruit to make a favourite of my husband's: damson jam. If you haven't tried it, it's delicious. (If you don't know what a damson is, it's a small variety of plum.) A lot of people make jamming sound complicated, but it's actually pretty simple to do. Here's how we made damson jam.

1. We removed the stalks & leaves from the fruit, and then weighed it. We didn't wash it until after weighing it so that we were just measuring the fruit and not the extra water. Cut a slit around the fruit (this will make it easier for the stone to leave later). Then put the fruit in a large sauce pan.

2. Add just enough water to keep the fruit from catching on the bottom of the pan, and cook on a medium to high heat until the fruit is soft and mushy. Stir constantly. As you cook, use a slotted spoon to remove the stones. They will separate from the fruit as it cooks, and so you should be able to see them as you stir. It is a bit fiddly, but if you keep stirring through with a slotted spoon, you should find them all. If the fruit seems very thick, you can add a little more water. The fruit turns a fantastic colour as it cooks!

3. Meanwhile, you need to have sterilized jars to store the jam in. You can buy new jars or use Kilner (or similar) preserving jars. Or you can save money and use old glass jars (store-bought jam or sauce jars, honey jars, etc.; any glass jar with a screw-on metal lid will work). Wash the jars well, then fill both the jars and lids with boiling water. It's easiest to do all of that either before you start making the jar, or to have one person sterilizing the jars while the other stirs the fruit. Then put the jars in the oven on a low heat until ready to use. (If you are using preserving jars with a seal, you will need to soften the seal as well.)

4. When the fruit is well cooked and all of the stones have been removed, add the sugar. You need a one to one (1:1) ratio of fruit and sugar. So if you have a pound of fruit, add a pound of sugar. Then boil vigorously and stir constantly for about ten minutes. Test for a set by putting a little of the jam on a cold plate (we stick ours in the freezer before we need it).

5. When it is set, pour into the sterilized jars and twist firmly shut. You can check that they have "taken" or sealed properly. If the metal pop-up section in the lid is down, then they are sealed. If it moves up and down, then it has not sealed and should go in the fridge. You don't check for the seal until the jam has completely cooled.

6. Enjoy! I particularly like damson jam on toast, but it's also good with plain yogurt, in cakes, in sandwiches, etc.



PS-We gave our neighbours a card and jar of jam to say thanks.