Its time to harvest the blackcurrants from the allotment and turn those purple juicy spheres into jelly.
Protecting the Blackcurrants
I’ve had the blackcurrant bushes under wraps to prevent the birds getting to the fruit before I can. (They have more time at the Allotment than I do!) I don’t use expensive fruit cages. I attach my Environ-mesh to the plants with clothes pegs.
Environ-mesh and Clothes Peg.. my home-made fruit cage
This has worked brilliantly and the timing is such that when I have finished covering the seedlings from the frost at the start of the year, the blackcurrant flowers have been pollinated and the little green fruit are ready to be protected.
Harvesting the Blackcurrants
I use two techniques to harvest the blackcurrants. The first is a tip from Sarah Ravens Garden Cookbook which advises to cut whole branches off, making it easier to get the currants and pruning the bush at the same time. However as you should only pruning a third of the bush, this technique should not be used to harvest all the blackcurrants.
Blackcurrant Branches
To harvest the rest of the blackcurrants, I lay Environ-mesh on the ground beneath the bush, then slip the clusters of blackcurrant off the bush with scissors. This is the quickest way to harvest I know. I can then gather the material carefully together, and transfer the blackcurrants into the poly box .
Blackcurrants caught in the Mesh
All the ‘bits’ of leaves, wood and dried out Blackcurrants will be removed when washing the fruit. Fill a sink with cold water, add the blackcurrants and swish. All the bits will float to the top of the water, and you can remove them with a sieve.
Making Blackcurrant Jelly
Put all the blackcurrants in a heavy bottomed pan, and cover with water. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 20 – 25 minutes.
Cover blackcurrants in water and simmer
Check the blackcurrants about half way through the cooking, and if they are soft, mash them with a potato masher. This makes sure you maximise the blackcurrant flavour in the liquid. Once the fruit is cooked, and mashed, turn it off and let the blackcurrants cool a little.
Mashing the Blackcurrants
This year I invested in a jelly bag frame and it has proved fantastically useful. Once set up over a large bowl, which is as easy as screwing the legs into the ring, I start ladling the juice and blackcurrants into the bag. This has to drip slowly overnight.
Jelly Bag Frame
Later, I measured the liquid to work out how much sugar I need. For every pint of liquid, I use a pound of sugar, so I matched the 2 1/4 pints of liquid with 2 lbs 4 oz of sugar. I use the jam making sugar as it has pectin added, and this ensures the blackcurrant jelly with set
Silver Spoon Jam Sugar
The blackcurrant juice and the sugar go into a heavy bottomed pan, and is warmed slowly and stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture slowly to the boil, and cook for about 20 minutes until it reaches the ‘jelly’ temperature on the sugar thermometer. If you haven’t got a thermometer, put a small amount on a chilled plate. Push the cooled liquid with your finger. If it wrinkles, then it will set nicely.
Meanwhile, wash your jam jars, rinse and dry in a hot oven. Let them cool to warm and ladle the jelly into the jars. The jelly will set as it cools.
Tips: Don’t be too fierce with the heat or it can burn, and skim off any foam on top as it cooks to get a really sparkling jelly.
The Results:
The harvest from the two bushes resulted in two large summer pudding, two punnets of blackcurrants given away and 5 lbs of lovely blackcurrant jelly.
Summer Pudding
Set Blackcurrant Jelly
Crystal clear and a good balance of sweet and sharp.
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Nutty as a Fruitcake 