Every person has their own means of unwinding and relaxing.

This is what cooking jam is to me.  My method of relaxing.   The preparation, the cooking time and the bottling are all so very rewarding.  Once all the full, shiny,  labeled bottles are lined up, I get a great feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.

When I talk of cooking jam, it includes every type of preserve, sweet and savoury.

The problem with cooking preserves for a hobby is that you end up with a lot more than you can eat yourself, so then you move on to giving it to your friends and family until their fridge and pantry are also groaning.  So what next?

My answer was to set up a stall at the local markets, where over the last few years, I have actually grown a client base and become quite well know in our community as the jam cook or the sauce lady.  This then led to receiving buckets and bags of fruit from people’s trees and gardens, which then in turn triggers a recipe search.

Sourcing the recipes is time consuming as there are so many out there that only have a very short refrigerated shelf life and my ideal recipe has a pantry life of at least 1 or 2 years.  My favourite recipes are vintage recipes.  Hand written into fragile note pads with imprecise measurements and lack of method.  The measurements and method can be found scribbled in the margins, added over the years as the recipe was refined and shared.