Seedless Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Jam

We’ve got Raspberries coming out our ears. It’s divine!

All our care and pruning paid off and we have been rewarded with a glut of fat, red fruit.

Raspberry JamWhen you’ve got this much fruit it can actually be a challenge to deal with it all before it spoils so we eat it fresh, we freeze it, we give some away and then, when there is still more left over, we turn it into jam.

After all, it would be wrong NOT to make fresh jam when you have the fruit to do so. Home made jam is so much better than the store bought stuff. And it’s so simple to make, especially Raspberry jam.

New comers to home made jam often come to the task thinking jam is difficult to get right.

There’s seems to be a common fear of the jam not setting and then having a great sticky batch of boiled up fruit to deal with, as well as the concern over hygiene and making sure you’re not preserving the nasties in your jars for consumption later, along with your jam.

But honestly, jam can be really easy and once you’ve got past the hurdle of trying it, you won’t ever look back.

Seedless Raspberry Jam

I decided to make our jam seedless this year since my step son tends to turn his nose up at the Raspberry Jam, just because of the seeds. He likes the flavour but, like most kids, he doesn’t cope with the texture.

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Preserved Beetroot

Cooking Beetroot

Cooking BeetrootI’ve never been a fan of Beetroot. 

I think I was put off it as a kid when it would come in a burger (common addition to a New Zealand burger) and even if I took it out, it would leave a big, soggy, bright red stain on the burger bun that I would then have to eat around.

Or maybe it was from reading too many historical novels that would describe a hideous sounding meal including boiled beets.

Either way, they’ve never been a vegetable I’ve warmed too, and so it is another vegetable that I never used to grow.

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Mint Sauce Recipe

how to grow mint

Mint sauce is a firm favourite in our house. A lamb dinner just isn’t the same without it.

Following on from yesterday’s post about our bi-annual herb refurb, I had a couple of requests to post the Mint sauce recipe I follow to use up the excess Mint growing in the garden.

Mint sauce is incredibly easy to make and the home made stuff tastes so much better than store bought.

And it keeps well so you can make a large batch and store it in the fridge.

We currently have a 4 litre mason jar full of Mint Sauce in our fridge right now so I won’t need to make any for a while.

Which is lucky given the current state of our Mint patch.

So, here’s the recipe I use for Mint Sauce.

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