The Start of the Jam Season

I picked the gooseberries on Monday evening. Several of them were starting to split and I could wait no longer. Three and three quarter pounds, with two and three quarters coming from just two bushes and only another pound from the other ten or so. I washed and prepared them when I got in.

I called in on Margaret on Tuesday for a coffee. She said I could pick the remaining red currants from her bush, and showed me where it was. Karen had already had three pounds from it, but it was still loaded. Mine haven't done anywhere near as well as last year - they are in quite a shady spot and the weather this year has not helped. They are only just starting to ripen.

I made the gooseberry jam after the afternoon dog walk, producing about seven pounds. I took a jar around to Margaret after lunch the next day and a couple of punnets for the red currants.

I filled both punnets easily - four and three quarter pounds. When I got home I washed them ready for making jelly. After the evening dog walk I heated them up and crushed them, and then loaded the jelly bag...

It splashed a little so I came up with the opposite configuration to reduce the distance from bag to bowl. I thought I could enter it into an art exhibition...

I left it for 24 hours, by which time it was under a drip/minute. I got just over 2 pints of juice, which has converted to about four pounds of jelly.