Is making home made jam cost effective?

Mrs_T_M

Would anyone know where I might could find some fresh or frozen concord grapes? I'm originally from North Carolina, and concord grape jelly/jam was the local speciality. I brought over a large jar from the States last time I visited, but it won't last forever!

I'd really love to find some muscadine grapes as well, but I know that's even more of a long shot here.

moments_of_sanity

Well, after spending a few months looking for a jam pan that was 'cheap' I have managed to get an aluminium swift jam pan for 99p :j

Question 1, does anyone have any good tips on getting the aluminium pan stain free?

Question 2, does anyone have any recipes they would like to share, I have some foraged yellow plums from last year and was hoping to use them to make some jam

Linda32

Plum jam is pretty easy to make. I can do it

Do you know the weight of your plums. Presumably they are frozen at the moment as you say they are foraged from last year. I think you will need the defrosted weight. It might be an idea to have them defrost for when you can spend time to make the jam. However this is what I used a couple of years ago.

2lb of plums
2lb of sugar - any sort but not brown
10 fl oz of water
12 kernals (From my Farmhouse Kitchen cookbook this makes the pectin)

If you google receipes I'm sure you will get an idea. You can adapt receipes to suit the amount you have.

Lola888

I didn't know you needed a special pan. I just used a pan I had in my kitchen. I went blackberry picking and managed to get 7lbs of fruit. I think my insides would have been screaming if I'd eaten that much so I decided to make jam with granulated sugar. It turned out lovely and we used old jams which I sterilised in the kitchen.

The only cost was the gas and the sugar which I pinched from my mum's kitchen so that was technically free!!

bbq_lady

You can't beat the taste of your own jam keep the cost down by picking your own blackberries strawberries and raspberries.Friends save me their jam jars .

Cottage_Economy

I make my jam in a large mason cash bowl in the microwave using the cold saucer method.

It will hold about 2lb each of fruit and sugar at a push, although I prefer to do it in quantities of about 1.25lbs of each as I know I can fill two jam jars properly. If there's any leftover, I store it in the fridge and use it within a couple of days.

I just find it easier to do smaller batches and fit jam making into a daily routine if I need to rather than doing a huge amount in one weekend. It usually ends up a burnt disaster whenever I've tried despite having 'the right gear' to do it with.

I usually always do plum, rhubarb or blackberry as that's the fruit that tends to glut in my garden. I've also done nectarine jam when i found a load in the clearance section in Tesco once, but only because they hadn't ripened yet and were still nice and firm. Most clearance fruit is past its best and I generally won't use it if it is too squishy.

D&DD

I love apricot jam so much I invested in an apricot tree this year lol so it's not always cost effective but hopefully in years to come it will pay me back.
Rhubarb and apricot jam is also lovely and a great way of using up excess crops.

My jars I see as an investment so I have bought mostly kilner or ball and kerr from the states.These will probably last as long as me and I save the supermarket jars for short term preserves or gifts.

It's a lovely hobby to have and if you can forage or get the ingredients for free all the better.

I just need a bit of land to grow some sugarcane..:D