We're in full harvest mode here on the south end of the island, meaning between regular duties, and bitters production, things are humming along at a fevered pitch to also get the bounty processed and on the shelves.

With summer being so late to arrive this year (June and July were disgusting!!! no other word for it! wet, dark, and gross!!), the end result was that when the sun did finally show its face towards the end of July, everything came ripe all the same time!  Strawberries, cherries, and now the bramblefruits.  A few such as the boysenberries and loganberries have suffered due to the inclement weather — meaning that when I got the chance at a flat or two, I jumped on it!!!

Now bramblefruits are one of my favourite summer delights!  BUT they are delicate and tempermental — leave them overnight, and they turn into a sodden mess, buzzing with fruit flies — ergo, all my canning efforts involving these little dainties are same day endeavours.

Sorry, no recipes here — all the preserves I have made thus far (52 litres and counting) have been on the fly.  A couple of guidelines:  for no-added pectin jams, I chop and cook fruits with skins (such as cherries or apricots) before adding any sugar.  For every 1 c fruit, add 3/4 c sugar, some lemon juice and cook to 220 F.  For those with added pectin, I prefer Pomona's – the set is more natural.  Just follow the directions in the packet to make up your own recipes.  Mine thus far have been moderately sweetened, except one batch of very low-sugar raspberry that will probably make its way into various savoury sauces over the winter.

Today's batches include: (top to bottom in the picture)

• apricot/raspberry
• loganberry/lime
• boysenberry

Running tally of preserves done up thus far this summer:

- Classic strawberry preserves with Herbs de Provence

- Cherry preserves with Lovage and Cherry Heering

- Cherry chutney

- Blueberry relish

- Apricot jam with Tugwell Creek mead

- Apricots in syrup

- Raspberry/apricot jam

- Low sugar raspberry jam

- Loganberry jam

- Loganberry/lime jam

- Boysenberry jam

if you are intersted in preserving a little bit of summer — give it a shot!  Its easy to do up small batches, and if you are worried about processing in the canner, you can always keep your smaller batches in the fridge.

As the vegetables start coming on, we'll be moving onto more savoury ventures here like pickles, chutneys and relishes, and canned peaches are in our near future!