A Little Jam Adventure

One of my quiet joys in life is making jam out of almost any fruit I come across. There’s just something magical about turning something simple and sometimes overlooked into a jar of sweetness that lasts through the seasons.

When I was in England for 2 months in summer, I went on walks by the river and along the roads where I'd see wild fruits. The hedgerows would be alive with wild blackberries, shining like tiny jewels in the sunlight. I’d stop, pick a few, and marvel at how much nature offers us freely, if we only pause long enough to notice.

Plump rose hip berries

Wild blackberries in England 

They were so abundant, just sitting there waiting to be picked! That’s when it struck me that there are so many fruits growing by the side of the road, unbothered and uneaten except by a few variety of birds and people like me who like picking fruit and tasting them. I’d spot rose hip and hawthorn berries too with their red colours glowing bright like Christmas ornaments, though I never quite got around to trying those (one day, I promise!).

Now I have returned to Michigan, and fall has arrived once more. It is a season of harvest and once again Nature and her abundance presents itself. I came across a crab apple tree near my house where its branches were heavy with little red fruits. The ground beneath was scattered with a few fallen crab apples that are left to soften in the cool air. It felt like such a waste to let them go unnoticed so I gathered 2 bowlfuls and set to make something out of them. I had already started searching for a recipe and my kitchen was soon filled with the smell of simmering fruit and sugar in my first attempt to make crab apple jelly. 

Crab apples looking like red hanging treasures

2 bowlfuls of harvest

Pressure cooked crab apples

I utilised the pressure cooker to soften the apples in about 10 minutes and cooked the strained juice for about 30-40 minutes. 

Cooking the juice with sugar 

There were moments when I wasn't sure if this culinary adventure would work but it's always worth trying. However, when the jam finally cooked, I am happy to say that the result was a pot of bright, tart, and delicious jam. 

I could barely wait for it to cool when spooned it onto some toast and took a bite. It was divine and it filled me with the kind of satisfaction that only comes from making something by hand. (It tasted as good as the jam I made in summer using wild blackberries).

This humble jar of crab apple jam has given me a quiet sort of confidence where I feel I could almost cook anything and turn any forgotten fruit into jam.There’s so much beauty and generosity in nature, waiting quietly by the roadside either in a forgotten corner or in a tree no one looks twice at.....and maybe, just maybe a little jam waiting to happen.