GETTING IN A JAM

..Or how to go scrumping

 When I was knee high to a grasshopper I used to lark around with a group of kids who would get up to all sorts of mischief ... nothing major league in terms of crime but clambering over walls to retrieve fallen apples from trees heavy with the fruit.

TEMPTING: Wild apples picked by moonlight & spread on

toast by dawn

 Since none of us were really tall enough to pull them off the trees we would gather those that had fallen on to the ground. Occasionally the more acrobatic amongst us would clamber on someone's shoulders to try and pluck a nice looking apple but more often than not they would topple over and fall.
 Afterwards we would gorge ourselves on the forbidden fruit knowing that stomach pains would soon follow, so bitter tasting were the crab apples.
 Hardly the stuff of the Lavendar Hill mob but trying to take some of Mrs Brown's apples was our way of adding some exciting to the day. Kids now rely on something called an X Box for their kicks but I can't see how that gets the adrenalin going by sitting at home transfixed to a screen.
 The funny thing is, Mrs Brown was such a nice, sweet old lady that had we knocked on her door she probably would've invited us all in but where would have been the fun in that?

APPLE & GINGER jam treat

 I was reminded of this episode of misspent youth just the other day when me and my neighbour - I shall call him George for that is his name - went off to pick some apples from a nearby tree. We must have looked a highly suspicious pair clambering around a hedge, wading through mud and hidden dips into a field just as dusk was falling and the pair of us giggled away as we wondered if anyone would spot us.

 George is in his 80s and I am old enough to know better but there we were scrambling around the ground picking up apples and pulling down the low branches to relieve them of their burden of fruit. Before you dial 999 George is already known to the farmer and has permission to help himself; nevertheless our little escapade intoxicated us with merriment as we recalled our days as naughty nippers.

JAM TODAY: And tomorrow and for

the rest of 2014 as well

 However, having filled some bags with the fruit we then headed back to home base and set about making Wild Apple and Ginger Jam using an old Irish recipe by kitchen goddess Darina Allen. Mrs Allen has revived kitchen skills long forgotten by the microwave and cook-in-a-bag generation. Reading her book on these old methods so inspired me and that's how George and I came to go out foraging for apples at dusk instead of waiting for the morning. It was a seize the moment plan and there was no time to wait. It was also the first time I'd ever made jam and it has subsequently triggered a craze! By the end of the week alongside the apple jam was raspberry jam, plus jars of apple and plum jam followed by  an orange, lemon & grapefruit marmalade, a strawberry conserve and some lemon curd.

SHELVES STOCKED with Darina's

homemade jams 

 I only stopped because I'd ran out of jars but a new batch arrived today and so now I'm in peeling, pulping and boiling mode all over again. I've virtually exhausted Darina Allen's supply of recipes  in her book Forgotten Skills of Cooking so if you have any old family recipes you want to hand down I now have an embarrassment of riches in terms of apples plus I bought some additional fruit from the local shops including loads of oranges, persimmon, and tangerines.

THREE TYPES OF MARMALADE: Orange

grapefruit & lemon

 In fact I'll do a deal - share your most precious family recipe with me and if I make it I will send you a jar through the post, special delivery. Now there's an offer you can't refuse. Additionally, if you have any jam stories from your childhood days or special dos and don'ts you want to share please send them to the Soho 2 Silo blog. I look forward to hearing from you - and if the recipe turns out to be special please also give me permission to publish the details in this forum.