Jams, pickles and preserves help!

[helenhicks]

We're having a stall at a Christmas Fair in early December and are going to be selling jams/preserves etc., basically anything you can put in a jar! We need to make them now so it's a bit late for seasonal fruit things, does anyone have any good ideas of what I could try as a complete novice? I have an apricot chutney recipe I've always wanted to try so I think I'll do that, but would like to do some other things too? Thanks :)

I'd suggest you think quite carefully about what you put in them as it's really easy to spend so much on ingredients that you'd have to charge a prohibitively high price to make a profit.

Here's my blog which has lots of recipes on it, I'd suggest Pumpkin and Maple spread, cyder jelly and cucumber pickle.

We did this recently and bought some cheap frozen raspberries from Aldi and a couple of cheap bags of their sugar - equal quantieis of sugar and fruit ( I used 3 bags of fruit and 900g sugar) Warm the sugar in the oven put hte fruit in the pan and heat so they thaw and go juicy. add the warm sugar and let disolve stirring occasionall once sugar is disolved let it boil, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking to the bottom (mine boiled for about 12-15 minutes) then test on a cold plate, put the jam on the cold plate, allow to cool and when you run your finger through it it will wrinkle. turn off the hear and leave for a few minute, scrape the foamy scum off the top the nbottle in sterelised jars and seal whilst hot. It cost about £7 to make and I got 8 medium jars out of it and the school sold them for £1.50 each. Not a huge outlay and I had jars at home because i am a hoarder!

I make pink grapefruit marmalade about 4 times a year because:

• you can't buy it in the shops
• I like my shred a very specific thickness

• its cheaper than buying a luxury preserve, which it is
• grapefruit are available year round unlike Seville oranges

Whenever I make it, people always want a jar, and love it so I'd say it would be a good seller. Using preserving sugar makes the colour clearer.