Fruity fortnight – (vi)

High Dumpsie Dearie

I love cookery books… I buy them, or hope to receive them as gifts to read a much as to use…In fact some of my favourite cookery books I’ve never actually used to cook from. One little book which I do use quite regularly in the fruit season, is  the Women’s Institute booklet entitled ‘Unusual Preserves’. I keep quite a few of my recipe books here in the study where I write and quite often  while I’m mulling over the next part of a story, I’ll pick up a book and just browse,and just now I’ve been looking at the little WI booklet.

It’s title is very apt because the recipes it has are very unusual, and i think some are probably very old. I was just looking at the selection of jam recipes;High Dumpsie Dearie Jam (apples, pears, plums sugar in equal amounts, lemon rind and ginger) Green Tomato Jam, Mulberry Jam (oooh, sounds divine) Glencar Jam (dried figs, rhubarb, candied lemon – 6 whole ounces – sugar and that’s it) Ripe Whortleberry Jam, Apple Ginger, Apple and Pineapple, Pear and Apple and Quince Jam, Sunset Farm Plum Rum Jam (sounds good) Rhubarb and Rose-Petal Jam, Preserved Rhubarb, Rhubarb and Orange Jam, Rhubarb and Blackberry Jam, and Medlar Marmalade… what a selection!

I really enjoy making jam, and would love to have a go at some of these, the only trouble is… we don’t eat that much jam… I have pounds of it sorted under the stairs, vintage stuff some of it!