Spring at 'Jam on the Hill'

Today is a beautiful sunny day at The Smithy, the birds are singing, ( as are May and Samm in the kitchen) and the green outside is awash with Snowdrops and Crocuses. The Daffodils are just awakening from a long slumber and the “Spreading Chestnut Tree”, which was mentioned in Longfellow's poem, has tiny buds on its’ branches. We often have locals popping in for a quick cuppa, a chat and a sample of the latest taste bud awakener that we’ve made in the kitchen ,Chilli Jam is the hot favourite at the moment!!

The Seville Oranges are now dormant for another year, so we’ve stock piled all the wonderful Seville Orange Marmalade, some with the added flavours of Ginger and Whisky, (which no doubt was sampled first on a cold morning.. hic!!). On Saturday we have our first Wedding Favours Day which is very exciting, May and Samm are busy in the kitchen baking Lemon Drizzle Cake topped with our Marmalade for Afternoon Tea…Mmmmm delicious… maybe I can sneak down later and nibble at a corner and blame the local field mice!!..although once started, I doubt there would even be a crumb left for any visiting mouse!!

When I think of Spring my mind wanders to all the lovely fruits, and the jam making adventures to come, we’ll keep you posted!! Our classes are filling up quickly so if you were thinking of coming along to one maybe you had better get it booked!

BTW we have an Open Day on April 2nd with all sorts of lovely things for Easter - come and see us if you are close enough.

Bye for now…..Penelope

Easter newsletter and offers

Great new email newsletter out today - get here http://www.jjsurl.com/?15 You can subscribe to receive the newsletter from the website - no need to buy. There are some fantastic offers for Easter and some great ideas for weddings - so if you are a bride-to-be or know someone who is, take a look.

Biding My Time

I am finding this time of year quite frustrating - I am repeatedly asked if I have any jam - we sold out of jam around about Christmas time - and I am impatiently waiting for the new season's fruit to arrive. It's a way off yet but May, who helps me cook, and I got out the recipe books today and started to plan for this year's production. At least I know I have enough jars and lids!

Jam Jar Shop is very busy every day of the week and I have to try to balance work and play to make sure we have some time off - it's very easy to keep on going but we all need a bit of time off. We are doing a lot of commissioned label designs for wedding favours at the moment - I suppose it is a popular time of year for weddings - we supply the small jars and make labels to co-ordinate with the wedding colour sheme, sometimes we are asked for the fabric covers as well. They look very pretty - some people actually make jam to go in the jars but there are all sorts of other ideas as well. I am thinking of starting a feature on the website 'What do you put in yours?'

We also supply some laboratories with jars and even an oil rig in the North Sea - I wonder if those burly boys are making some marmalade?

I'm off to my local Country Market early in the morning to peddle my wares and so another Friday comes around, faster and faster it seems these days. Let me know what you are planning on making - we could have a recipe share.