Full disclosure….

Its been a long time since my last post – in fact I haven’t actually posted anything at all this year so please forgive me for my lack of presence.

There are lots of reasons for my absence. Lots has been happening. My day job has been manic, we’ve got a new car, a mini called Mary that we love, and most importantly we have finally, after 13 years together, bought our own place. Both Flabulous Towers and Mary are works in progress so forgive me if you get posts about renovations and frustrations with living in a building site.

But for now lets get back to basics, and by basics I mean food!!  Surprisingly this year our new garden did give us a harvest – blackberries, blueberries and blackcurrants to be precise. So with a little foraging and some sugar and a squeeze of lemon my black and blueberry jam was born.

This is a deeply deep, almost black, purple jam, with a distinct flavour and fantastic stickiness. No need for Sugar Jam or pectin in this as the berries themselves contain enough and it needs virtually no time (20 minutes rolling boil) to make.

Ingredients AND Method

• Firstly grab your dark fruits – any mix will do but for this recipe it was all about the blackberries,  blueberries and blackcurrants.
• Wash gently in a colander then weigh your fruit before adding to a stainless steel pan.
• Add the same weight of granulated sugar and juice of quarter of a lemon to the pan
• Bring the pan to the boil stirring constantly.
• Once your pan reaches a boil turn the heat down until you get a rolling boil (should just be bubbling) then keep stirring to break down the fruit
• After 20 minutes take off the heat and allow to cool slightly
• This should then become sticky but still loose enough to pour into a sterilised jam jar then seal.
• If it lasts this wonderfully fruity jammy jam should keep for a while in the fridge.