The Magnificent WI

I am a WI member and very pleased to be so. I would hesitate to say proud because I try not to have pride as an emotion, but it comes very close. Amongst all the talk of 'the youngsters' in Society, which is predominantly negative, it is good to see that lots of young women are forming their own age group WIs. I am often asked by such groups to teach them preserving and regularly go with my hobs and pans and make jam - or mustard - or marmalade. As the more traditional WIs are moving away from their stereotype of jam making in an effort to be taken more seriously, the younger members are wanting to learn the traditional skills like knitting, crochet - and jam making.

So it was I found myself in Market Harborough this week taking a class with their WI making Blackcurrant Jam - and very good they were too. Thank you for inviting me Ladies and I hope I can return at some point and we can share something else.

All set up and ready to go            Rosie holds forth!

Blackcurrants warming up

Adding the sugar - normally done off of the heat but I didn't want anyone getting burnt on the exposed hob

The crinkle test

Jarring up

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My 'Wilma Flintstone' labels!

All done - and very well done!

In other news this week I have made Apricot Muscat Spoon Fruit , which I will be writing about shortly - it looks really yummy and has an interesting history

and Italian Gardiniere Pickles - they smell amazing! Recipe and method shortly

N.B.re  the pictures of Tate & Lyle sugar above - I normally use beet sugar if I can - Silverspoon or Whitworths - as I like to support British farmers. I couldn't buy any locally so presume that we are up to our European cap for production. Really annoying and, in my view, completely unnecessary.