Posted in Recipes

As I write this, it is snowing outside. Definitely not summer here. And yet again, our neighbourhood bonfire had to be postponed - not due to flooding this week, but due to snow. I wonder what we'll get next Friday.

But I had a taste of summer in the kitchen yesterday when I realized that we had run out of jam. I pulled out the 1kg of raspberries I had stored in the freezer and made a batch of jam for the family. The fact that I can do anything at all in the kitchen is a miracle - and it means that the morning sickness is waning. It's still there, but it's not as intense. I started with 1 kg of raspberries - picked locally last summer.

I love the way that 'steam' comes off the fruit as it heats up underneath.

When the raspberries had lost their frosted look, I added 1 kg of sugar. It actually seems really wrong to add all this sugar to the fruit - but I don't know any other way of making raspberry jam.

Look at that rich, beautiful colour. Red is my favourite colour. I can't live without it.

I let it boil rapidly for 5 minutes exactly, then I turned off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes, adding a knob of butter into the jam. Apparently, this allows the 'scum' from the fruit to come to the surface so you can scoop it out. My 3 year old woke from his afternoon nap while the jam was boiling and he came out saying, "mmmm what's that yummy smell?" There's something heavenly about the smell of raspberry jam cooking. It's a middle-of-summer, hot-day-outside smell - lovely. And I am so ready for summer to get here.

And then I poured the jam into the jars. I don't actually get too many jars of jam from 1 kg, but this should last us awhile as we usually alternate breakfasts with toast and weetbix. I love making raspberry jam because it's so quick, easy and foolproof. It never fails.