Just because we are now on FIRE (Financially Independent, Retired Early) this does not mean we are too proud or flashy to live in a modest way. Just a jar of jam?
One evening last week, Louise, one of our Dunstable friends had asked Rachel if she could trim her rabbit’s nails (she’s done this before and has the right technique). So in the evening we walked into town and to Louise’s flat. As Rachel cut her rabbit’s nails, Louise showed me around her flat; all very nice. We talked about her work which is interesting stuff and before long it was time for us to stroll home on such a delightful, warm summer evening.
Once back to our neighbourhood, we stumbled across some damsons which had fallen from a tree, over-hanging someone’s garden wall onto the pavement and road. Rachel picked up a couple and examined these saying “they’re good”. So the decision was made. Together we collected as many as we could from the pavement, road and gutter. Yes that’s right, even the gutter!
Back home Rachel washed, checked and dried each individual fruit. Some were rejected but most survived. Next they were weighed and the process of making some jam had begun. Before long, a lovely jar of jam was sitting on the dining room table. It looked a lovely deep, red colour and the taste was sublime; as good as anything you’d buy in a snazzy shop.
I enjoyed doing this with Rachel. We have time to do these things together. It enriches our relationship, although I admit it is in an unusual way! Who cares if anyone saw us, although it might have been quite fun.
It reminded me of the time when I worked in Stevenage first of all, back in 1996. My job then was to represent the Probation Service in the Magistrates Court a few days each week. On my walk back to the office after a long day in Court, the outdoor market was often packing up and piling up loads of unsold fruit and veg, ready for the town’s rubbish collectors to come along and take it off to land-fill. I couldn’t resist looking through the heap, often picking out a tray of fruit or a box of vegetables and then bring it home for Rachel to figure out how best to use or freeze the bounty.
Being the scavenger in Stevenage in my £350 suit while carrying the official brief case always struck me as an amusing thing to do, especially if any of my colleagues or clients spotted me!
But why not? Why should any of us, not matter how rich or poor, allow perfectly good food to go to waste? In those days we didn’t exactly have much money. We had just bought our first house and had a mortgage which needed paying each month. Before long Rachel was made redundant from her well-paid College job and I was on a temporary contract with the Probation Service. We were worried about money, making ends meet and picking through edible rubbish seemed to make sense. These days our finances have improved – but we haven’t changed our gratitude for food, wherever it comes from.
That jam looks pretty darn good. I think you’re giving new meaning to the term “Street Food.” To make the fruit into jam you boil it or can it right? I bet the heat gets any impurities out.
Thanks Mrs Groovy. I’m going to be joining in on the next batch of jam making with Rachel, we have already been picking lots of blackberries (quickly frozen for the time being) and they might appear in a post soon. I’ll be doing this because we now have the time to do these things together and I’m genuinely wanting to learn a few things like this (must be almost 30 years since I last tried anything like that).
In the meantime Rachel tells me that she washes the fruit, removes the stalks etc, weighs it, then adds an equal amount of sugar, gently brings to the boil in a suitable pan, skims off stones when they separate from the fruit. She continues to boil the jam mixture until a spoonful of jam wrinkles on a cold plate; at that point it is ready. The next stage is to pour the jam into jar(s) which have been pre-warmed in the oven and sealed immediately. Hey presto we have scrummy jam!