Fams, jellies and marmalades

Jam-making is one of those old country arts which, like bottling, enables the country housewife to put summer in store, and enjoy delicious fruits all through the winter. During Victorian times the word ‘jam’ was thought to be rather vulgar, and ladies preferred to describe it as a preserve or conserve. Old family recipes, carefully inscribed in fat exercise books, and handed down from one generation of farmers’ wives to the next, are often so described.

Almost every housewife has her favourite recipes for the jams she makes every year. Sometimes the result is more successful, or less so, than it has been in previous years, for various reasons. Oddly enough, if we have had a good summer, and the fruit is riper than usual, the jam will not set so well and has less of the distinctive rich fruit flavour.