Tis the season for berries

I adore blackcurrant jam so when I visited my son last week and spotted a bush laden with them, the first thing I asked him was 'do you want these, can I pick them?' His dear wife said 'go for it - we feed them to the chooks!' She professed to be, not a lover of blackcurrant jam but my son is.......!
It took me about 30 minutes (with some help from one little grandson) to pick 650 grams of the gorgeous little black beads, they were perfectly ripe so they showed great promise of great jam. And I hate to see a good thing (sorry little chooks) go to waste, it is definitely my mother in me.
The afternoon turned out to be very hot (not ideal jam making weather) so I decided to 'top and tail' them and freeze them to wait for a cooler jam making day.

Blackcurrants evoke strong child hood memories for me. I lived in the same house throughout my childhood, in fact I got married from said house, not a common occurrence these days. I remember our home had many bushes of raspberries, red currants, black currants and gooseberries. My Mother being the great homemaker she was, made jam and jellies throughout the summer season. And to earn money during the school holidays we used to go raspberry picking, more like slave labour but you certainly had your fill of delicious sun ripened fruit while picking.
With this in mind, a month or so ago I made the decision to see what I can grow in our garden here in Welly, one man with rolling eyes, one gooseberry bush purchased and planted. I will have to read up on how best to look after it and hopefully by next summer it will be laden with fruit for gooseberry pie!
I am not sure about berry growing here in Welly, my feeling is our section is too prone to wind and planting spots with full all day sun are not great. I've only had some smallish success with blueberries planted in a pot, placed in a sheltered position.

From small beginnings greatness comes

Anyway, back to my jam. The day came...
Blackcurrant Jam
650 grams of blackcurrants
650 grams of Jam Setting Sugar
(just use equal grams/amounts of fruit and sugar)
1 knob of butter ( takes any scum off the top)

Place blackcurrants in a heavy based pot, gently bring to a simmer, cook 5 minutes. Add the sugar and simmer gently for another 5-10 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Add a knob of butter, stir until melted. Test on a cold saucer for setting. When ready pour into hot sterlised jars. Seal with jam covers.
It is that simple!
This amount made three small jars. I delivered a jar to each household and kept one for myself of course - feedback from daughter was 'this jam is dangerously good', fabulous on Vogels toast. Nice.....