Jam Hot

By Emma Outten

I don't know what the ladies at my local Women’s Institute would make of it but, before I’d spent a day at Eastgate Larder Norfolk Preserves, I’d never, ever, made jam.

Maybe I thought, somewhat misguidedly, that life’s too short to make jam, but that was before I’d met Eastgate Larder’s Jane Steward.

Jane’s real passion is for reviving the medlar. But when she’s not busy reviving this long forgotten, old English fruit which was once Britain’s sweet treat, she makes rather lovely preserves, using only locally sourced produce, with as much as possible grown at home in Eastgate, near Cawston. Her preserves can be found at such places as Creake Abbey Farmers’ Market, and the Slate deli in Southwold.

Jane Steward's preserves are made with locally sourced produce.

Since moving to Eastgate, Jane has become a committed grower of fruit, vegetables and flowers – all very fitting considering she recently discovered that her plot was a fruit farm around 100 years ago.

In 2015, she was cured of a stage 1 bowel cancer, thanks to the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital’s screening programme, and digging and planting became vital to her therapy. As she says: ‘My passion for growing, harvesting and making is essential to who I am.’

My first foray into jam making was all thanks to my colleague, Rachael, winning a day at Eastgate Larder as a prize at last year’s Royal Norfolk Show, and raising money for Thornage Hall, near Holt, in the process (it was Jane’s charity of the year, with five per cent of her retail sales going towards the regeneration of the herb garden at the Hall which provides supported living accommodation).

Donning aprons, and with jam thermometers at the ready, there was a bit of a Great British Bake Off feel to our day - who was going to get a good set first?

We kicked off by making raspberry jam, and soon discovered that jam making is surprisingly simple – involving equal proportions of raspberries and granulated sugar, and some lemon juice (only because raspberries have very little pectin, so the addition of pectin-rich lemon juice helps achieve a set). There’s no slaving over a hot stove for hours here – raspberry jam is particularly quick and easy to make.

Jam making is surprisingly simple — no slaving over a hot stove for hours.

And there’s something satisfying about standing there, stirring away, then testing for that all-important set – when a teaspoonful of the jam on a cold plate will wrinkle when pushed with a fingertip. And just when I’d convinced myself that it was never, ever going to set, mine did - my first tears of pride moment.

Next up was redcurrant jelly. No lemons were needed here, as redcurrants are very high in pectin, and it was another ridiculously simple recipe, just the redcurrants, water and granulated sugar. The most complicated thing was doing a bit of maths – depending on how much of the hot fruit has dripped through the jelly bag into a jug, we needed to measure out three-quarters of that weight in sugar, compared to the volume of juice. Again we were aiming to get the mixture boiling at a temperature of 104 degrees C, the setting point when the magic (or is it science?) happens. I cannot explain how excited I was when my jelly finally started to set.

The third and final recipe was for lemon curd. Jane's recipe is a big nod to Nigel Slater, and is delicious on toast, as a cake or tart filling, or, my personal favourite, stirred into some Greek yoghurt.

Jane's lemon curd recipe is incredibly versatile and always delicious.

The recipe involves lots of lemons, sugar, unsalted butter, and eggs. It was a bit like making custard, and there was a real sense of achievement when all that light whisking paid off, and it started to thicken up. Not that we're competitive or anything, but I couldn't help but feel envious that Rachael managed to fill up an extra jar with her lemon curd!

After lunch, were lucky enough to take home a box full of our very own preserves. I can see why Eastgate Larder is Jane's therapy. A day spent stirring is akin to being in a psychological state of flow, a fully immersive experience where I've never been more pleased to see wrinkles forming.

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