What better
way to spend the last day of the year, and the first of the new year, than to
pick fresh berries and make jam?
In New
Zealand, strawberries are strongly associated with Christmas, which is strange
for us, but makes sense from the season’s perspective. As we spent Christmas
somewhere in the bush without really realizing it was Christmas, and so without
celebrating, and also without fresh strawberries (although freeze-dried
strawberry ice-cream was an important treat), we made up for this later. We
picked raspberries, bought additional straw- and blueberries and the
appropriate amount of sugar and started the process.
After some 20 glasses of jam, we still had a kilo of raspberries left, and Thomas found some liqueur recipes in his “preserving fruit” book.
Because he also found a recipe for mint liqueur, and we have a mint bush that is growing out of all proportions, we also tried that. The liqueurs won’t be ready for some months, but the jam is proving to be very fine.
