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Whoops! Just putting a P.S. in here as I completely forgot to tell you about our new bottle - called Alto - which has great Italian style and would be brilliant for Christmas presents. You can buy them singly at just £1.98 plus the cork, or in boxes of 35 at just 99p each!( Don't forget to order the corks as well ) I'll be making something to put in them soon so will post some pictures. They are 500ml capacity but as they are so tall it looks a lot more generous than that - take a look. These are a special deal so get some while stocks last . . . If you are looking for that perfect Summer into Autumn recipe then I am going to come to your rescue today. Blackberry & Apple Curd. There. I've said it - so now I suppose, you will want the recipe? It is quite simple but a little more bother than lemon curd.. This will make about 4 x 280g/8oz jars so make sure you have them, that they are washed and drying in a warm oven. 250g/8oz cooking apples 250g/8oz blackberries 250g/8oz caster sugar 125g/4oz butter 2 large eggs juice 1 lemon Peel, core and chop the apples and put into a pan with the blackberries. Heat them gently, increasing slightly once the juices start to run. Cook on until the mixture is nice and soft, around 10 mins.  Push the mixture through a sieve into a heatproof bowl to remove the pips - use a wooden spoon and some elbow grease! Add the sugar and lemon juice to the mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugar as much as possible Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl Beat the eggs together and pour through a sieve into the mixture which removes any strands and lumps of egg white  Now, you can either set the bowl over a pan of simmering water to cook slowly, stirring most of the time to evenly distribute the heat. This will take about 20 minutes. Or, you can microwave in short bursts of 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring between each session. Cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon  Jar up into the warm jars, allow to cool and then keep refrigerated for up to 6 weeks Trev and I had some with warm scones today and it was really delicious - not too sweet Home made scones are so easy to do and taste so different - here is my recipe. Heat the oven to 200 deg C Have a flat baking sheet ready I mix 340g/12oz SR Flour with a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 125g/4oz butter, and enough milk to combine the ingredients into a soft dough. I mix the butter in with one of those pastry cutters, and then pour in the milk a little at a time. I draw the mixture together with a round bladed dinner knife, just using my hands if absolutely necessary. I turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it to about 2.5cm/1 inch deep - the key to light scones is to handle as little as possible and to eat them fresh. I use a medium cutter, placing the scones straight onto a baking sheet and then put into the hot oven. I don't brush them with anything. Cook for about 15 minutes when they should be risen and lightly coloured. Cool slightly before serving with the Blackberry & Apple Curd. Yum. 
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Right, listen up my preserving people. I am going to be demonstrating in the Market Lane Theatre at Grand Designs Live 9-12 October at NEC. I have a pair of FREE tickets to give away in this competition so if you would like to come along to the show - then have a go. All you need to do is
Tell me which of my blog posts you have liked most, and why, in no more than 50 words. Leave a comment below, or tweet, or email me from the website rosiemakesjam.com You have until midnight this Friday to enter and I will choose the one I like best. Very special class today with some lovely people - sometimes it just 'gels'. A real case of they arrived as strangers, left as friends. We made Plum Jam, Rosie's Chilli Sauce, Wholegrain Mustard with Beer - a really good day. Thank you Lorna, Kim and Nicki xxx
Following on from the competition the other day, I have been asked for the recipe for Rosie's Most Efficacious Cough Linctus so in the spirit of caring and sharing, here it is. 
This recipe makes around 4 x 200ml bottles 250g/8oz elderberries 600ml/1 pint water 250g/8oz honey 1 cinnamon stick 3 cloves piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped 1 tablespoon allspice berries 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg Put all but the honey into a pan, bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for around 30 minutes. Squash the berries with a potato masher to release the juice during this time. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag, and once cooled add the honey, stirring to combine. Bottle and seal. Use within 1 year. Do not give to children under 12 months of age because of the honey. Take the cough linctus as required but do not add to hot water as it destroys the properties of the honey. 
Elderberries are extremely high in Vitamin C and both the berries and the honey have anti-bacterial qualities. So much so that elderberry juice is now being used to treat some strains of the flu virus that have become immune to the vaccines.
This linctus is delicious and even just looking at the colour cheers you up! Today I resurrected a recipe I devised many years ago. This was partly due to a number of kiwi fruit appearing in our veg box - I am not really keen on them and Trev kept forgetting to eat them. So I decided to make some Kiwi and Lime Marmalade to use them up. I only stopped making this because it was very, very difficult to get any kind of set. I gave in today and used sugar with added pectin - and it set beautifully and tasted a-maz-ing. 
The recipe makes around 7 280g/8oz jars so get them washed, rinsed and in the oven to dry and sterilise before you start. So, I had 1kg of kiwi and six limes. Take the zest from the limes with one of those little widgets or just use a grater. Put the zest in a pan with 900ml water and heat gently to soften the peel. Squeeze the juice from the limes and add to the pan. 
Remove the flesh from the kiwi fruit by cutting in half and then scooping out with a teaspoon. Cut each half into about eight pieces - not too small. Add to the pan and cook gently for around 10 minutes. Add 1kg sugar with pectin (jam sugar ) to the pan and stir to dissolve. Turn up the heat to achieve a fast boil, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and test for a set. Reboil for a further 2 minutes if necessary. Leave to stand for about 10 minutes, then pot up into warm, sterilised jars and seal immediately. This is really yummy - and not just for breakfast. 
Enjoy x
Sue McKenzie was the lucky winner of my competition last week and has received her prize this morning. She is going to be using the pan TODAY and making lots of lovely jam! Thank you everyone for entering and guess what - there will be another competition SOON!
I know. Too much excitement. Thank you to everyone who entered the competition - nobody got the answer completely right - but I didn't expect anyone to guess it! It is ELDERBERRY COUGH LINCTUS Two people got the ingredient correct and they were both comments on here - none of the Tweets was even close. So, I am going to take the first received which you can see from the timeline is Sue Mckenzie. . If you can email me your details Sue I will get the prize packed up and off to you this week - very well done. You may think this preserve a bit weird but in the Middle Ages the elder tree was known as the 'cure-all tree' and every home had a tree by the front door. Every part of the tree was used for different purposes, both medicinally and for preserves and dyeing. The berries are very high in Vitamin C and especially effective against coughs and colds. The honey and ginger are anti-bacterial while the spices bring a lovely warmth which soothes a sore throat. You may scoff at all of this, but I have been reading that elderberry juice is being used in hard to treat flu cases which have become resistant to vaccines. If you want to make your own, leave a comment and I will post the recipe. It tastes yummy. 
Right. Listen up. I am running a competition for you to win the pictured jam making equipment - stainless steel 8 litre preserving pan, jam thermometer, wooden spoon/paddle and one of our silicone jam funnels.Oh, go on then, I'll throw in some labels as well, of me, pretending to be Wilma Flintstone. Wil-maaaaa! The prize is probably worth in excess of £50. 
'What do we have to do Rosie ' I hear you clamouring, hardly able to contain your excitement. Well, take a look at the photo below, and make a guess at what is in the bottles ( they are all the same.) You have until MIDNIGHT on Sunday 7th September - I can't believe it's September already, happy birthday to me, happy bir, oh, OK, yes - you can leave a response here, you can tweet your answer to @rosiemakesjam ( be great if you followed as well ) or, indeed, answer to my facebook page - plus a 'like' as well - www.facebook.com/rosiemakesjam. You can have as many guesses as you like and I will give the prize to the person who gets the closest, in my opinion. In the case of a tie, I will get Trev to draw one lucky winner out of his bobble hat. Can't say fairer than that. Right - here we are then. I finished all of my labelling today except for these? What can they be? 
Good luck!
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