Struan Farm

Jammin at Struan Farm

We've had a rainy day this week at Struan Farm, so I was able to run off to Piopio Berry Orchard and pick up strawberries to make the first batch or two of strawberry jam. 

It's quite easy to make, I use the Edmonds Cookery Book when making jams. For strawberry jam, one batch (five 250 ml jars) takes one kg of hulled strawberries and (gulp!) six cups of sugar, along with 1 1/2 teaspoons of tartaric acid. 

The berries are mashed in a pan, after which the sugar is added and stirred until dissolved. It then boils for 5 minutes, the tartaric acid is added, then it boils for about another 5 minutes. I keep a plate in the freezer and drizzle a line of jam on it that I then test with my finger to see if it's set. If it doesn't run the jam is done. 

Ahead of all this I've washed and sterilised jars, which are waiting in a warm oven, with lids in a pot of simmering water on the stovetop. The hot liquid is poured into jars and sealed.

While I actually prefer blueberry jam, and am going to try black currant this year as well, our guests and grandchildren LOVE my strawberry jam. I'm convinced it's because of those amazing Piopio Berry Orchard berries.  So I need to keep cranking on this for awhile yet.

Christmas in Piopio

Need to catch you up this week since things have been busy at Struan Farm!

John and I managed to get to the annual Piopio Christmas parade this year for the first time in years. As you can see, it's definitely a small town event, not the Pasadena Rose Parade, but that's why we love it:

 

Christmas dinner was a relatively low key affair given our annual Boxing Day extravaganza. John's brother Carrick and sister-in-law Norma joined us. Christmas would not be Christmas for John without baked ham (while for me it would be turkey, really don't eat much if any pork). This year I baked a ham for the first time, while Carrick brought the Christmas pud.

Looks like ham sandwiches well into mid-January......