Barberry Jam

I love a good forage! Last year when my berberis shrubs in the garden had a big crop of berries, I googled them to find out if they were edible. They are edible, and apparently you can use them to make barberry jam. Armed with a colander, I went out to pick some - only to find the birds had beaten me to it! Oh well.

This year, while I was sitting out in the garden having a beer, my other half pointed out an overhanging branch dripping with berries. Determined to beat the birds this time, I pulled out the loppers, and chopped it off.

I managed to harvest just under 200g of barberries (185g to be precise!). It is quite a prickly job. Then I gave them a good rinse and rummaged through to remove any stray stalks and beasties. Each berry has what looks like a little snout. I left these on on the grounds that they would be too fiddly to remove.

Making the jam was easy. I put the berries in a pan, covered them with water, brought to the boil and simmered for an hour. Then I added the same weight of sugar (185g) to the pan, brought to the boil, and kept on a rolling boil for about 20 minutes. I then let it cool for 5 minutes before pouring into a sterilised jam jar. There was enough jam for an 8oz/227g jam jar, with a bit left over for my jam pot.

The jam is delicious, dark and sticky, with a slight bitter after taste. It makes a very good substitute for marmalade at breakfast time!