Time to Jam
Rachel Henderson
It can be hard to carve out time for kitchen projects during the busy summer, but it can be positively heartbreaking to suffer through cold winter mornings with no homemade fruit spreads for your toast. It's worthwhile to take advantage of the market season and prepare. My favorite jams are black currant and gooseberry, and the season for both is upon us!
If you're intimidated by the prospect of huge batches, pressure canners, and all the equipment, fear not. Jam can be made in small batches, with nothing more than what your kitchen already contains (except possibly jars, which are easy to find in stores at this time of year). If even hot water bath canning is out of the question for you, they're also easily frozen.
I have posted this recipe from David Lebovitz before, but I love it for its simplicity. It's easily scaled up for the more ambitious, too: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/black-currant-jam-recipe/
Gooseberry jam, in addition to being supremely flavorful, is also one of the prettier things I make. While this article describes gooseberries as green, we grow and sell a number of varieties, ranging from green-ripe to red and deep purple. I love to make jam (and pie!) with berries that are at a mix of stages of ripeness, so that there's a tart complement to the sweetness. http://www.westoftheloop.com/2014/07/13/farmers-market-find-gooseberries/