Mid Summer is here with our usual Gippsland weather swings from sweltering 40C temps to low teens with the fire on and some decent rains thrown in for good measure. This is a very productive time in the veggie garden and one of the times of the year when we are completely self sufficient. All our own beef, veggies, fruit, home made breads. In fact we usually have too much produce and this year is no exception, with an abundance of tomatoes, lettuces, chillies, zucchini’s, summer squash, beans, cucumbers, kale, broccoli, cauliflowers, figs, stone fruit, raspberries and the apples just starting to come through. We have about 35 tomatoes in this year with 12 different varieties from sweet yellow wapsipinicon peac, tigerella, tommy toe, green zebra and pink bumble bee to big meaty lobular tomatoes like the beefsteak, costoluto genovese, and mortgage saver. The zucchini’s have included green, yellow and pale striped green ones and the beans have been purple, yellow and green. Great for colourful salads. Also lots of fresh herbs with an abundance of mint, parsley and basil. So we use as much as we can, give lots away to friends and family and preserve the rest. Jams, pickles, chutneys, sauces, Varcola  jars of preserved  fruit and veggies, and some dried chilli and herbs. It all comes from hard work in the garden, a great climate with plenty of water and attention to selecting lovely heirloom seeds. We have had lots and lots of visitors since new year and it’s been lovely to feed almost exclusively from our gardens, paddocks and orchard.

Jam Recipe 

Makes approx 16 jars 

2kg ripe fruit (peeled and de-stoned as necessary)

1.7kg sugar

Juice of 1 lemons

1. Prepare the fruit. If making a preserve rather than a jam, set aside some fruit in larger chucks for adding later. Preparation will vary, strawberries just need hulling and putting in the pot. At the other end of the spectrum, boil small stone fruit like damsons whole, allow to cool and remove skins and stones by passing through a colander. Mash up the fruit into a rough pulp . Put fruit pulp into a wide, thick-bottomed pan, add the sugar and the lemon juice, and bring to the boil. Add the remaining larger fruit chunks to the pan, and put a saucer in the freezer.

2. Boil the jam for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly checking the setting point every minute or so during the last 5 minutes. To do this, take the cold saucer out of the freezer, put a little jam on it, and put it back in to cool for a minute. If it wrinkles when you push it with your finger, then it's done. Some jams like strawberry jam is unlikely to set very solid though, so don't expect the same results as you would with a marmalade or a stone fruit. If a firm jams is desired with these fruits adding pectin setting agent like jamsetta.

3. Take off the heat and skim off the fruit scum. Pour into jars sterilised in the oven at 110C for 15 min and cover with a disc of waxed paper or screw-on pop lid, seal and store.