Seasonal

Last week we were gifted 2 big boxes full of the sweetest home-grown Nectarines I think I've ever tasted (thanks Hansen family) so what were we to do with this yummy, juicy, extra ripe seasonal fruit apart from eat it??? Make Jam of coarse....  

 

Having never made Nectarine Jam before, and a lack of being able to find a recipe in my trusty old preserving book, I decided to 'wing it'.....

 

My girls started by removing the seeds from the fruit and slicing the flesh, thinly, until they had enough to fill a 4 litre pot. I then placed the pot full of sliced fruit on the stove over a low heat for approx an hour (do not add any water or your jam will be too runny) - the flesh will be all nice and gooey like baby food after this time.

 

We then added 4 cups of sugar to our baby food goo and bought it to a simmer. Because Nectarines have a very low pectin level we had to simmer our mixture for approx 2 hours before the 'setting' stage was reached. A good way of telling if you've reached this 'setting' stage is to have a small plate handy in the freezer, place a teaspoon of your hot mixture onto the cold plate and freeze for a couple of minutes. If, when removed from the freezer, your mixture wrinkles and separates when your finger is run through it than your jam has reached the 'setting' stage - remove it from the heat and bottle it. If the mixture doesn't wrinkle simmer for a further 10 mins and repeat....

 

We've also got an abundance of passionfruit here on the farm at the moment so I tried my hand at some passionfruit syrup, so far so good it's a hit with the whole family!!!!

 

For our syrup we took 2 cups of fresh passionfruit pulp, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and bought it all to a rapid boil for 10 mins.

 

While it was still hot we poured it into some sterilized jars....

 

And then I couldn't help but pour it all over a butter cake that we'd made the day before and fill it full of cream - so delicious!!!!!

 

I'm still knitting away happily and have been dying to share this shawl with you all...

 

The pattern is Sand and Sea from the Coastal Knits book and the yarn I've used is Malabrigo (lace for the green and sock from the edging)

 

What can I say.... I simply loved making this shawl. There was just enough detail to keep me interested the whole way through and I even learnt something new - picking up wraps from a purl side. I can see another one of these simple lightweight Summer shawls whipped up very very soon....

 

And thanks to my little Millie, it's being modelled just beautifully..... :)

{{{{Big Hugs}}}}
Jodie