Strawberry overload!

I'm prone to exaggeration as much as the next person, but last weekend there really were strawberries in our kitchen as far as the eye could see (well.... almost!) Knowing I'd need strawbs for the jillicious! jam I was planning to make, and the wedding favours my pals Dave and Lianne had asked me to make for their wedding next month, I thought a trip to a pick your own place was the best bet. Once there, I seemed to be overcome by some kind of madness and proceeded to purchase 24lb of fruit - which looked like a manageable amount until we got home and suddenly we had a strawberry mountain in our kitchen. Yikes.

Needless to say, pretty much everything I did last weekend revolved around strawberries; I'm even sure I dreamed about them! After I made the wedding favours, I made several other batches of jam, so strawberry jam is definitely on the menu folks! I have.....

12 jars of strawberry jam
4 jars of strawberry jam with a hint of vanilla
9 jars of strawberry jam with a hint of rose water (may sound like a strange combination but it tastes gorgeous!)

All are priced at £2.95 per jar.

Contact me on jill.mceachern@ntlworld.com if you'd like to make an order. Please keep an eye on the sidebar of this blog as I'll be updating it with the number of jars that I have available.

Elderflower fizz

I found a recipe for elderflower champagne in a magazine recently and having made elderflower cordial before, thought the champagne was worth a shot! Elderflowers are out in abundance at the moment and the recipe is so easy that I thought I'd share it, in case anyone else fancied having a go. So here you go….

4 litres water
625g sugar
4 large elderflower heads (strip the flowers from the stem with a fork)
2 lemons
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Put the sugar into a large container (we used a big pan with a lid) and add boiling water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool before adding the elderflowers. Then add the juice of one of the lemons and slice the other lemon and add it to the mixture. Finally add the vinegar.

Cover with the pan lid or with a cloth or plate and leave it for a day, then strain through a fine sieve or muslin, squeezing the flowers to release the flavour. Store in screw top bottles (old, washed and sterilised wine bottles with screw caps come in handy here!) - it will be ready in about 10 days. Drink it chilled (preferably whilst enjoying the sun and reclining on a comfy chair outdoors)

It's definitely a lazy summer's day kind of recipe - pick the elderflowers, do a bit of mixing and then leave it for a bit to do its thing! I must admit I was a bit sceptical about where the fizz would come from - trying a sip of the mixture as it went into the bottles, it was a flat as an …erm…...pancake…. but some elderflower magic obviously took place as it was maturing, as there's definitely a sparkle to the finished product! Mum was our guinea pig and tried it at the weekend - she declared it delicious, so we tried it too and it is delicious………just like summer in a bottle! Have a go and see for yourself……..

(Oh and just so you know, this drink is apparently mildly alcoholic.....)

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit my friend Ruth, who had told us she had "some" rhubarb in her garden that I could have to make jillicious produce with. When we got to her house we were faced with a monster rhubarb patch with howge stalks, each about 3 foot long! After Ruth told us to pick way more than I'd expected, we returned home with what felt like my body weight in rhubarb and I got cracking with my rhubarby recipes.


First off I made Spring rhubarb relish, a light fruity relish that is made with rhubarb and sultanas, with a hint of fresh ginger, cloves and cinnamon from the spice bag that is used as the mixture is cooking. There are several good things about this relish....

1. It contains no onions (so perfect for those of you who don't like onions!)
2. It doesn't need to mature before you can tuck in......so you can eat it NOW!
3. It is v tasty, especially in a cheese sarnie!

Next up was Rhubarb and ginger jam, which might sound a bit odd, but rhubarb and pieces of preserved ginger are a winning combination! The first batch I made used an equal amount of fruit to sugar and the resulting jam is sweet and claggy (as we say up north) - so probably best on toast, and for those with a sweet tooth! I made a second batch of the jam with rhubarb kindly donated by Anastasia from work, this time using less sugar - and ended up with a softer set jam - perfect to have on bread and butter.

So, I therefore have for sale:

• 14 jars of Spring Rhubarb relish
• 6 jars of claggy Rhubarb and Ginger jam
• 6 jars of soft set Rhubarb and Ginger jam

All are priced at £2.95 per jar (please return your empty jars to me, so that I can use them again. I'll give you 20p per jar off your next purchase). Email me on jill.mceachern@ntlworld.com if you'd like to place an order, and please keep an eye on the sidebar of this blog, as I'll be updating it with numbers of jars available. Remember when they're gone, they're gone!!

If anyone would like to donate unwanted or excess rhubarb or other fruit or veg, please let me know - in return, I'll give you a jar or two of the preserves I have made from it (Thanks Ruth and Anastasia for getting the ball rolling!)