Jam Season: Soft Fruit Saviours

After a warm and sunny Spring, Summer is underway an bearing delicious fruit! June marks the season of soft fruits of all kinds. Sweet and subtle flavours like strawberry or apricot and tart but tantalising rhubarb and gooseberries are all ripe for the picking and perfect for preserving at their optimum sweetness.

Strawberries

Whether grocer-bought, picked on a fruit farm or you’re lucky enough to have them ripening in the garden, strawberries are as quintessentially British as the Wimbledon Championships they're so readily associated with (with cream, of course). Fill jam jars with your favourite strawberry jam recipe and twist on a gingham lid for that rustic village fete feel.

Gooseberries

When it comes to gooseberries, it can be easy to shrug them off as too sour for any sort of jam recipe. When uncooked these small green fruits can get your face in a twist with bitterness. But don’t be left behind; when boiled with a little sugar, they can make the most delightful jelly or jam that can be used in all manner of recipes sweet and savoury for a little sharpness.

Apricots

This is considered by many to be the easiest jam to make, so perfect for the novice jam maker! Apricots have a medium amount of pectin, so they don’t tend to underset or overset. Adding a teaspoonful of dried, lemon-scented pelargonium leaves at the end of cooking gives it a great twist, but there's no need to over-complicate things; this jam can be absolutely delicious with just three ingredients: apricots, lemon juice and sugar.

For some fantastic jam recipes, why not head over to the BBC Goof Food website where you will find hundreds of amazing ideas.

Happy Jamming!