There are some days when a scone and only a scone, is the very thing you need to most.  A scone slathered in yellow butter, freshly made jam and a good dollop of thick, cloud like cream.  For those days when you need to cope with the heat, or the cold, or the rain or the…air?  On those days accept no substitutes.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of scones, but really who isn’t?  They are light yet substantial, flavourful yet a perfect carrier for jam and cream; they are indeed the moist morsel of choice on a hot summer’s day.  Plus they take like 5 minutes to knock up, which doesn’t hurt.

The jam I slathered liberally all over my scone is one I made Friday last.  It was a hot, hot day that had been mostly spent at the park with friends but I knew that we would have few chances of strawberry picking in the days ahead so we took our chances and picked our punnets full.  The same soggy weather that has been crippling our garden has been having adverse affects on the strawberry harvest too.  Most of the berries were squishy to say the least but we managed to find enough for a jam fiesta, a good thing too as we have some major jam monsters in our household who will not be sated by apricot, oh no indeed.

Yes they look cute but don’t be fooled, they’ll eat you out of jammy house and home then move on to the next place without a backward glance.  Mercenary I tell you.  Cute but mercenary.

Luckily I do love to make jam and this year I’ve had the chance to make it with our own sweet nectar harvested right here on our own jolly farm.  After a bit of reading and checking out of recipes on the magic interwebs I came up with a combination to suit my needs and judging by the way it’s being scoffed it worked out well.

I like to make a lot of jam at once so the quantities are for large punnets (4 litres) which works out at 2kg of fruit.  You should be able to break down the quantities for a smaller batch if you don’t live in a house where jam gets hoovered up at an intergalactically speedy rate.

Strawberry Honey Jam

2kg strawberries

2 1/2 cups of raw honey

2 Tblspns of lemon

1 pack of pectin (I used liquid pectin which isn’t as strong as powdered so I used 2 packs)

Mash berries in a large stock pot then add honey, lemon and pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil then cook for about 15 minutes.  Test for set.  I do this by putting a plate in the freezer when I start cooking the jam.  Put a splodge on a push it to see if a skin has formed, if it wrinkles you have reached setting point, if not cook for a bit longer but keep checking as jam can burn easily.

Put jam into sterilised jars and cap, can for 10 minutes in a water canner.  You may as well keep at least one jar out of the canner and beginning eating it as soon as it is no longer molten lava temperature.  Having scones waiting is a super good idea.