Latest news from the strawberry jam front – the tide of strawberries
is advancing, threatening to engulf me in a wave of strawberries
waiting to be processed, taking up whole shelves of the fridge,
lurking in corners just when I thought I’d done the last
batch. Heaving a sigh of relief as the last pot is filled and sealed,
I turn around only to find the kitchen table groaning under a fresh
sea of newly picked strawberries waiting to be sorted.
There is no more room on the larder shelves
for jam – what I’ve got there
already will probably last us a decade
at the current rate of consumption, I’ve
used up all the jam jars and am down to
oddly shaped mustard jars, coffee jars
and outsized sauce jars and there are still
a good few weeks of strawberry season to
go.
I have to start selling the jam…………..memories
of a film, where ex-city career woman,
moves to country with baby in tow, starts
making apple puree baby food and ends up
with a full scale business employing half
the village, flit through my head. Country
baby was her label, with a cute picture
of baby, designed to appeal to other city
people looking for the good life. Mind
you she was a PR person, so had a head
start on promoting things and I’m
not a business person at all, just someone
with too much jam on their hands, larder
shelves and everywhere else in the house.
So, I take a stall at the local market
and arrive with a basket of jam, a few
jars of marmalade for variety, a table
and chair. I discover a few things – people
smile when they see strawberry jam, people
like strawberries, there is a high feel-good
factor about them, they conjure up summer
and celebration and treats. It’s
not a hard product to sell, people are
predisposed in its favour; the price just
has to be not too scary. Some people are
more attracted by the pretty fabric covers
on the lids and choose one to match their
kitchen décor…I’ll have
to work on the pretty aspect. No I’m
not about to become a strawberry jam millionaire,
but I did sell ten jars.
After thinking I’d got the jam consistency
sorted, producing reliably runny but not
too runny jam, I suddenly turned out several
batches that set completely - thick solid
stand-up-your-spoon-in jam. Now I know
it’s all about pectin and how much
there is in the fruit, but why now? I did
leave it soaking in the sugar longer because
I didn’t get round to cooking it
till the afternoon, but does that do anything
to pectin levels?
Anyway, I now have two varieties of strawberry
jam – thick and runny, both have
a good flavour - and both sorts have their
aficionados. But now the dilemma is, am
I able to reproduce the thick jam to order
or will it only happen by accident? We’re
a long way from scientific laboratory controlled
conditions here…. a wing and a prayer
is more like it. So prayer it’ll
have to be, if my market customers return
demanding thick strawberry jam!
Copyright 2005 Kit Heathcock
|
