Bad berries = yummy jam

Like most people I really look forward to summer.  Berries are the best and just when they start fading away you get summer stonefruit.  Can't lose really. I tried waiting when the strawberries appeared at the supermarket, I really did.  But last week my husband and I both gave in and purchased strawberries.  They looked good, but did not deliver.  Picked too early.  Poo.

But there is generally an upside and the upside is strawberry jam.  I can't quite work out why homemade strawberry jam is so much better than shop jam.   Surely it is just berries, sugar and maybe a dash of lemon?  Strawberry jam made at home tastes like summer, goodness, deliciousness and the promise of happy days.  It really does. 

The Mad Millie people have extended into preserving goods.  I don't need a lot but when I saw that their preserving kit had a wide mouth tunnel and preserving tongs I couldn't resist.  I really like chunky strawberry jam and it will not go through my standard funnel.  So I try and scoop it into the jar, creating a big sticky mess down the side.  So I was ridiculously pleased with the wide mouth tunnel. 

The jam will turn into strawberry ice cream later this evening.

Preserving tongs (in my head I refer to them as forceps) make getting a good grip on the jar easier than with metallic tongs (although I have a huge Chinese metallic food strainer that I tend to use).  I also thought that the magnetic on a stick that comes with the set (there are five items in the kit) was brilliant -when properly preserving food with metal and rubber seals they are very hard to place on top of jars in a sterile fashion.  I suspect that the simplicity of this little device will pay off when my cranberry tree fruits in the New Year.

I do lust after their preserving pan.  The picture online makes it look thick and sturdy and I can imagine it hanging in my dream kitchen.  At the moment though I have a functional kitchen and my stock pot is sufficient.

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