I’ve just re-dsicoverd my River Cottage Handbook No 2 – Preserves by Pam Corbin. I forgot I had this book! One of the first recipes listed is for Green Gooseberry Jam with elderflower and I think I’m going to attempt to make it at the weekend. Our gooseberries are doing well despite the caterpillar attack in May, but with our vigilant picking we managed to eliminate most of the caterpillars after they did their initial damage of eating half of the entire bush!
I think when I first noticed that half of the bush had been eaten, I picked off a few hundred caterpillars – I spent a good two hours doing it! There were so many of them! We then went out every morning and picked off more and more. They kept on coming!
We didn’t have this issue last year as I think the caterpillars feasted on the nettles, but we got rid of all the nettles a few months ago! Oh dear!
Anyway, I think the Gooseberries are ripe enough for jam making, so going to get picking at the weekend and see how it goes. Not made jam for years!
I know I can find elderflower in Aberdour, so could take a little trip and go to the bakers and pick up some of my favourites oatcakes [the best in the world in fact].
