I love combination jams because they are a great way to use fruit that you have (either fresh or frozen) but don't have enough of anything to make a single fruit jam. They also provide a wonderful range of flavours. This jam recipe is courtesy of Chelsea sugar who make a great Jam Setting Sugar that allows you to make a quick and simple jam. You can also easily scale the recipe up or down because you just use equal quantities of fruit and sugar. Juice and peel of 1 lemon, large pieces … [Read more...]
Making Wine from Grapes
I had a try at making wine from grapes with a surplus of eating grapes from the garden. It is quite easy to do and the result wasn't bad at all - even if I do say so myself! I have been growing a grapevine along my fence and carefully nurturing it through all the steps of pruning grapevines in anticipation of being able to harvest luscious white seedless eating grapes. Last year I was away at harvest time so I missed the first grapes and the birds got them. This year there were masses of … [Read more...]
Pruning Grapes
I put in a grape vine a couple of years ago but haven't got any fruit yet. I read that I wouldn't get a proper crop until the third year but I haven't seen a single fruit. Pruning is something that I still find a bit bewildering and that doesn't seem to appear in many books on growing fruit in NZ (that I've seen at least). A friend gave me a diagram of how to do pruning but the pictures look nothing like the actual plant so I'm still not sure I've got it right. It wasn't helped that last … [Read more...]