Quandong Jam....

This time of year spells the start of Quandong Season.... If you've never eaten a Quandong before they're a cherry sized fruit with a tart, almost bitter, flavour.... They grow wild in the bush out in these parts and I'm lucky enough to have 2 huge trees on 'Darling Downs' Station, and 1 of these is full to the brim with fruit at the moment.....

Here's how I turn these little bite sized treasures into some yum-o jam....

First you need to wash your fruit and then start removing the seed.....

To remove the seed, grab a sharp knife and slice through the flesh like so.... Now squeeze the back of the Quandong and you'll see the seed starting to pop out..... Squeeze a little harder and that baby will pop right on out..... And there you have it a seeded quandong ready for jam making... The beauty about this fruit is that is breaks down really well when cooking so there's no need to chop it up before you start which saves a hell of a lot of time..... Another great thing is that it freeze really well. So if you're short on time when you get all of your fruit seeded just pop them in the freezer until you have the 4 hours spare to make your jam. On to the jam making....
Once you've seeded a full bucket of Quandong's, add them to a large heavy based pot with 5 cups of water and about 1kg of sugar (I like to add a little less than this so that my jam starts rather tart). Bring your mixture to the boil, with the lid on.
Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer, with the lid off, for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, stirring often and making sure your gooey mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of your pot.

After 3 hours of simmering I like to test the 'set' of the jam. To do this place a small plate in the freezer for approx 5 mins, once it's chilled add a teaspoon of your mixture to the plate and return it to the freezer for a couple of minutes.

Your jam is ready if when you push your pointer finger into the cooled mixture it wrinkles. If you find it hard to understand what I mean in this step I am more than happy to do a picture tutorial on this stage of the jam making process, just let me know in the comments...

If your mixture doesn't wrinkle keep simmering, checking the setting point every 15 mins. Once your jam is ready and has reached 'setting' point, pour it into hot sterilized jars and seal.... A bucket full of Quandongs (about 4kg) makes me 30 x 250ml jars of jam....

Remember all of those seeds that you removed from your fruit, well don't through them away.... They come in handy for loads of fun crafty things like crochet covered jewelery not to mention how awesome they are for playing marbles, my kids just love them!!!