Harvest Time

My daughter has been coming home from school singing harvest songs this week.  I love the fact that harvest is still celebrated in schools, giving the opportunity to celebrate food, and talk about where it has come from.  It is too easy to walk into a supermarket and pick up and bag of potatoes or apples, and not think about where it has come from, or how it has been grown.  I remember watching, I think it was a Jamie Oliver's series... yes, it was the school dinner one, where one child didn't know what chips are made from (should be made from!!!).  I feel that a large part of society has lost touch with food, it's roots, and the community it creates.  Food really should be celebrated more!  

Anyway, I digress.  The reason I was telling you this, is because it reminded me that I still hadn't done my blog posts on plums!!  (I am still playing catch up from the school holidays!)  We are lucky enough to have 3 fabulous plum trees in our garden that supply us with more plums than we can possibly eat!!!  

In the past amongst various puddings, cakes, compote, etc., I have made plum jam... I love making jam.  I have always loved making jam.  I remember as a small child, going round to Uncle Ernie's and Aunty Marjories (an elderly couple that lived across the back street, that I adopted after my little sister, was born!!) and helping Aunty Marjorie make strawberry jam with the strawberries Uncle Ernie had grown on the allotment (the very same allotment my dad has now!).  

As I got older I made my own... blackcurrant jam (my favourite) with blackcurrants I painstakingly picked from my dads allotment.  Unfortunately his blackcurrant bushes have been neglected over the years, but he has said that he plans to get the sorted for next year, so hopefully it will be blackcurrant jam I will be writing about.

When we moved into this house, it was lovely to find that we could harvest our own plums (I love watching the children go onto the garden to pick their pudding!!!)... and make plum jam!  There is something deeply satisfying from picking something that has grown in your garden, and making delicious food with it. 

Tomorrow comes the jam recipe, and then I might share my lovely plum cake recipe too!!