Thinning fruit and what to do with it

I have thinning out seedlings or fruit. If the plant managed to grow it is a miracle and I don’t want to stand in it’s way! However, particularly with fruit trees I force myself to do it otherwise bits snap off.

Some fruit you can still use as long as you leave it late enough - tricky balance!

The plum tree decided to grow almost all the fruit just one one branch, who knows why... so quite a lot had to come off. They made really good jam though. Phew!

One little branch had already broken

None if them are ripe yet

I took some of the more ripe ones along with green ones as I thought maybe they would have more flavour.

It came out really well, you wouldn’t know it is made from unripe fruit I don’t think.

Peach Jam

Our peaches aren’t great for eating, but they make very good jam. Unfortunately the birds think they are good eating and often get a lot before they are ripe.

Enough raspberries for jam. Hurrah!

First time ever that we have had enough raspberries and strawberries to make jam.
Only a couple of jars of each, but still, exciting!.

Fig and Apple jam

Busy using apples from the tree that fell down. I also had some figs that were about to go off so I made up this jam.

300g fig
300g apples (I used eating apples from the garden, but bramley would work well)
600g sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon (grate the zest or chop fine)

Cut the apples and fig in to bite size pieces.
Put in to a pan and heat gently until juice comes out, then increase heat a little and simmer until fruit are soft (or turned to mush depending how you want your jam)
Add the sugar and boil until a set is reached.
Put in to sterilised jars (I just wash in the dishwasher and use straight away)

EAT!