The first soft fruit of the season

We have loganberries (planted by my enthusiastic jam-maker dad when he 1st moved here) in our inherited garden which is very pleasing. They are ripening up very well & it looks as if we are going to get A LOT! I managed to pick a half a kilo yesterday. We are completely out of rhubarb jam so decided to make some with loganberries - just as well as a few of the berries I picked were fairly underripe - just right for jam in fact.

Inheritance is actually a bit of a theme here because the recipe I used comes from a book of recipes collected together by my godmother, Kath, who died back in 1994. She left me all her books (she knew me well) & I turn to one or other of her collection most days. The best recipe books are in fact the collections she put together herself from all sorts of sources - magazine cuttings, WI publications, newspaper columns & passed on by friends. It's lovely to see her writing there & it takes my breath away when every so often I come across my late mum's handwriting on one of the pieces pasted in...

Anyhow here's auntie Kath's recipe for raspberry jam adapted for loganberries. Her clipping is annoted with 'BBC - 1937 - Very Good':

Loganberry Jam
To each lb of fresh loganberries measure 1 1/4lb sugar. Warm sugar in a low oven (Gas 3, 160C) until it is very warm (do be careful not to create toffee at this stage...). Whilst the sugar is warming put the loganberries in a suitable pan over a gentle heat. Mash a little with a wooden spoon & when the juice runs add the sugar. Boil very fast for 3 minutes exactly. Pot as usual.

The resulting jam is absolutely delicious - it has a VERY soft set so I would imagine wouldn't keep for as long as something a little more jammy. But the short boil means that the conserve retains a lot more of that delicious loganberry flavour. We enjoyed it yesterday spooned over greek yogurt for our breakfast. Wow - it was a great way to start a beautiful sunny day.

Thanks dad & auntie Kath...