Hello everyone! I have
decided that Thursdays are going to be Thrifty Thursdays.
There are a number of
reasons for this, to begin with growing up my family never had lots of money to
spare so we saved money where we could. Now I’m an adult and I’ve got bills to
pay and other expenses I have realised how important it is to save money where
possible.
One of the things that I
have been thinking about was making jam. Although the cost may actually end up
being more than buying ‘value’ jams, homemade jam tastes amazing and makes
wonderful gifts!
On Tuesday me and my mum
went for walk close to where I live and we picked wild blackberries. This is obviously
a very thrifty way of getting the fruit for your jam! It is also super fun!! I
also must say NEVER pick and eat fruit that you do not recognise or that may be
contaminated.
To make it simple I’m going
to write a step-by-step of what I did after foraging for my blackberries.
- Something to collect berries in (large bowl)
- Bowls for washing the berries
- Airtight containers
- Two large pans
- Glass jars
- Lids or a sealing kit for the jars
- Metal tongs/spoons/ladle
The first thing that I did
was put the blackberries into airtight containers, this draws out any bugs that
in the berries and makes that easier to wash. I put them in the fridge
overnight.
The next morning I washed
the berries in a bowl of cold water and picked out the bad ones. I ended up
with a large bowl of good berries and a small bowl of bad berries which I put
out for the birds. I then put the good berries into a bowl of cold water to
soak for 30 minutes before using them.
After 30 minutes I drained
the berries and weighed them. I needed 1kg of berries, the blackberries weighed
just under 1kg so I added a few strawberries that I already had.
I also weighed out 880 grams
of granulated sugar and 80ml of lemon juice.
Next I filled one of my pans
with water and put my jars into in, I turned it to a high heat to boil the jars
to sterilise them. You need to be very careful when doing this as the pan,
water, and jars will be very hot.
I then put all of my jam ingredients
into the second pan on a medium heat; I stirred the ingredients until the sugar
melted. It looked so tasty!!
Once the sugar has melted
turn the heat to high and boil for 30 minutes. I ended up cooking mine for
longer as this was the first time I had ever made jam but I don’t think that it
really needed the extra time.
When the jam was ready I
carefully took the jars out of the pan using the metal tongs and stood them on
a clean, dry tea towel. I then ladled the jam into them.
There are a number of ways you
can seal jam jars, it’s a good idea to Google it to see which method will work
best for you. I used Kilner jar seals which are wax disks and cellophane disks
that seal the top of the jars. You can buy the sealing kits from Amazon and in
some stores.
When the jam had cooled I
put pretty paper circles that came with the Kilner kit onto the jars! They just
look so pretty and would make the most AMAZING gifts for Christmas or any occasion!!
I hope you enjoyed this
thrifty post and if there is any information that I didn’t include or that you
would like to know, feel free to comment I will get back to you ASAP!!
See you soon!
Bethany x
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