Anyome make home made jam?

[Hagabel]

Considering it but not sure how much work/expense is involved. Any experience please in NZ would be great. Do you pick own fruit or use stuff from greengrocers?
Ideally I would grow my own fruit but ran out of room in veggie patch.
Thanks

[Familyofmonkeys]

We make a few jars of jam every summer......it's fun for our kids.

During our first year in NZ, we picked up some preserving jars and jar seals in the supermarket really cheaply. We generally make jam when we get a load of fruit from somewhere....pick your own type place, picked from somewhere, gift from neighbours etc. We don't make large batches, usually just 4-6 jars at a time, so we use our normal stock-pot saucepan and haven't needed to purchase a larger preserving pan so far. We look up the required quantity of sugar for a particular weight of each fruit either on-line on in a jam making book we own, and we sterilise the jars and lids by putting them on a baking tray in the oven.

The first time we made marmalade, we cooked it too long as we didn't think the mixture was thick enough (after using the plate from the freezer setting test). Then when it cooled down it ended up too thick to spread, so we ended up having to use all 4 jars as a topping with porridge, cheesecake etc.

[Genie]

we ended up having to use all 4 jars as a topping with porridge, cheesecake etc.

Oh now isn't that just a shame Sounds delicious

[newarrival]

I make jam whenever I feel like:-)), I think it doesn't always work out cheaper than the bought one, but it is so much nicer! We could get strawberries very cheap in germany, compared to that it is pretty expensive here, but the jam just tastes so much better, I think. Unfortunately our eldest left for Dunedin, now, too, he was the jam eater of the family.
I collect all sorts of jars (mayonaise, pickles....) and got some in the local Hospice shop.

We have rhubarb in the garden, so I made strawberry- rhubarb jam, a friend has loads of oranges, so i made my first- ever marmalade, bought quinces at the market and made quince jelly, our apple tree has tons of apples, so I juice those and make apple jelly.
I haven't been making any recently because we need to empty out what we've got first!

[sophiedb]

Yup, I like jamming too - my first attempt at marmalade was a bit mad too FoM!

It's easy and you really don't need much in the way of extra kit. I usually just use old jam jars as containers (thoroughly washed etc of course).

One good way to get fruit is make friends with the local greengrocer, so that if they have anything close to spoiling - i.e. unsaleable - they will hopefully sell to you cheap

[April]

Made loads last Summer from the plum trees in the garden - so it did work out cheaper than buying, plus it lasted fantastically well.

[jacar]

my mum makes the best feijoa and ginger jam. funnily enough, it doesn't last long at my place.

[Ally Bally Bee]

I make jam with all the feijoas our (neighbour's) tree produces (the branches on our side of the fence are most productive!
Have also made strawberry jam with strawberries from Julian's Berry Farm at Whakatane (they do 1kg frozen berry packs specifically for jam purposes).

On the whole it's cheaper for us as we don't have to buy much (I use 1kg jam sugar for most of my jams). And it means casey can layer his jam sandwiches really thick.

I got most of my jars from the Salvation Army store (50c each) or from friends.

And that reminds me, I have 1kg of raspberries in my freezer...

[Familyofmonkeys]

I think the most expensive bit of equipment we've bought so far was a set of two metal funnels (one wide neck and one narrow), as it makes the getting jam into jars far less messy. We needed a metal one that could be sterilised and they came with a good quality solid non-mesh filter, so we can make non-bitty chilli jam.

[Carey]

I make quite a lot of jam using whatever fruit is cheap in season. Just use ordinary jam jars, warm them up in the micro-wave with an inch of so of water in, til it boils. That seems to be ok to stop any mould. Use the screw top lids to tighly seal.

I make small batches in the micro-wave or on hob. A pyrex jug is fine to pour the hot ajm into jars.

Kanga is the expert on marmalade but she might be tad busy at the mo.