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

Professional Days

Here at Jam Jar Shop we receive many questions about the rules and regulations of running your own preserve making business.

We don't feel qualified to answer these questions - although we have our own experiences through our business 'Jam on the Hill' (pictured)- so we refer any such enquirers back to their local authorities. It is sometimes clear that this proves to be less than satisfactory.

In an effort to make positive progress we are arranging a series of 'Professional Days' to be held here in Rutland at our jam making base, when our guests will be our local Environmental Health Officer, Kate Neal, and our Trading Standards Officer, Richard Matthews. They will be guiding you through the legislative mightmare with informative talks and plenty of time to answer your questions.

Under the auspices of The Guild of Jam and Preserve Makers we hope to pioneer a Nationwide programme of such training days to bring much needed help and advice to those that are seeking it.

The cost for the day will be £75.00 inc VAT, a tasty lunch of locally sourced food will be provided along with refreshments throughout the day. The day will start at 10 a.m. with coffee and biscuits and the first talk will begin around 10.30 a.m.
We will aim to finish around 3 p.m. to allow time for you to travel home.

The first day is planned for April 20th, if you are interested in booking a place please either email penelope@jamonthehill.co.uk or telephone 01572 723723 to reserve a place. There will be a maximum of 8 places on each day and more dates will be booked if there is enough interest.

On April 19th we will be holding a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate training day.

You will be able to attend the informative lecture and take a multiple choice assessment paper at the end of the session. Successful candidates will be awarded a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate, which meets the minimum legal requirements, and will remain valid for up to 3 years.

What does the course cover?
The course covers everything you need to know about good food hygiene practice, including:
· Causes of food poisoning
· Contamination
· Micro-organisms
· High risk foods
· Cooking, chilling and re-heating
· Preventing food poisoning
· Personal hygiene
· Cleaning and disinfection
· Pest control
· Premises & equipment
· HACCP and Safer Food Better Business

This course is ideal for anyone who handles food for the public and who needs evidence of food hygiene training. This includes chefs, waiting staff, staff in care homes, schools, nurseries, prisons, contract caterers, voluntary organisations etc. - and anyone starting their own jam and preserve making business!

The actual course lasts for three hours but refreshments will be available throughout the day and a delicious lunch of local produce will be provided.

There will be a maximum of 8 places but other dates will be booked if there is enough interest.

The all inclusive cost for the day is £80.00 - if you are interested in booking please either email penelope@jamonthehill.co.uk or telephone 01572 723723 to reserve a place.

Marmalade Awards

WooooHoooo! We're off to the Marmalade Awards this weekend - come and see us if you're there, we'd love to say 'hello' and give you a discount code you can use on the website - see you there!

Looking forward

Well, May and Samm have nearly finished a marathon marmalade make, just a last few speciality flavours to complete. The Seville orange season was quite short this year and for the first time, we have frozen a few whole just in case we get an order for something we have run out of. We haven't frozen the whole fruit before, but know people do, so we shall see what happens. We are off to the Marmalade Festival next week, we have sent our entries off and we shall be having a stand there, so come along and see us if you can. We would love to meet you and we'll have a few show offers as well.

I devised a recipe for Seville Orange and Cracked Black Pepper Jelly this year which was both stunning to look at and has the most amazing flavour. It is equally good with duck or an oily fish like mackerel. Try making up your own recipes sometimes - what's the worst that can happen?

We're busy stocking up on things like Rosie's Extra Special Brown Sauce and our own recipe Barbeque Sauce , then we'll be making Lemon Cordial and all things lemony. Use this time of the year to make those kinds of things which aren't quite so seasonal to leave time later when there is a glut to deal with. We are impatiently waiting for the rhubarb to start - there is some lovely delicate forced fruit about but that isn't really suitable for preserving - it's too expensive. Wait for the maincrop then make some gorgeous chutneys, sauces and jams.

Lots to do, lots to do. If you haven't seen our new Artisan range take a look here. Great prices, as ever, larger quantities for the home producer, plus sturdy storage boxes to make transportation easier. We have the pressure bottles back in as well, again, a great price - we always try to be value for money.

We have some great ideas in the pipeline, the best way to hear about them is to subscribe to our newsletter - no obligation - no tricks - no charge -but you will hear there first about any new offers or discount codes.

Happy preserving!

New Year Resolutions

I can't believe it's 2011 already! where did 2010 go? well another busy year ahead and with lots of bumper harvest's I hope.

If like many of us, you've already had your maslin pan out and made your seville orange marmalade, filling your kitchen with those amazing citrus vapours and stocking up your cupboards for the year ahead, then you'll probably already be looking forward to summers soft fruit season so don't forget to take advantage of the more sleepy (in terms of preserving terms) spring months and take the opportunity to re-stock your preserving equipment, not forgetting your jars, bottles and lids so that you will be ready for what the summer months will bring.
If last year was anything to go by, we'll all be pretty busy with damsons and apples again, which would be nice. My plum tree does something different every year but last year, the plums it produced were enormous so here's hoping it'll surpass itself this year.

Anyway, back to January and February................well, here at Jam Jar Shop, we're looking forward to taking part in The World's Original Marmalade Awards again this year on 12th and 13th of February. March is Country Living Fair and lots more to come so we'll keep you posted.

Happy Marmalade making and if any of you are stuck on what to do, Rosie has a marmalade making video on the Jam Jar Shop website.

Spicy cranberry chutney

So....... if you like your cranberry sauce at Christmas, what about straying slightly from the traditional and giving a spicy cranberry chutney a go this year? it's ready to eat in 1 hrs 20 mins and is delicious!

What you will need:
8oz cranberries, 2 tomatoes - blanched peeled and chopped, 2oz sultanas, 1/2 small chopped onion, 1 teaspoon salt, 8oz dark brown soft sugar, 4fl oz cider vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 6 fl oz water.

What you will need to do:
In a maslin pan or large saucepan, combine cranberries, water, sultanas, tomatoes, onion and salt. bring to the boil. Simmer covered for 15 mins (or until the cranberries pop).
Next, stir in the other ingredients. cover and simmer for 35-40 mins, (or until it has a chutney consistency) give the occasional stir. once ready, ladel into jars and let cool before use.

if you try this recipe out, give us a post on facebook with your taste results!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Jam-Jar-Shop/130417870323888

Jammy results!

Well, the WI real Jam Festival was a lovely event to be involved with and it was very pleasing on the eye seeing the competition display room a wash with red and white spotty lids!
There were several familiar names on some of the entry's, particularly those of Guild members.
Speaking to one particular member after the results were in, who couldn't be present on the day unfortunately but was very happy with a result of 19.5 out of 20 in the class 2, soft fruit category, coming second to Best in Show, Rosemary Green. Well done Bridget.
There was also an entry from Kelvin Mackenzie, former Sun editor who went on to win class 6, 'jam in the public eye' competition.
It was great to see so many enthusiastic visitors including a young man who is a very keen jam and preserve maker, so much so that he's set up a Jam Club, 'an excuse to sit around drinking tea and eating what we've made' he says, sounds good to me!
A short video of the festival can be seen at http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/whats-in-a-jam

Watch out for the next blog on 'what do you do with yours'!