English strawberry jam

When I first moved here I had trouble appreciating all the new things in my life, all the change. I compared everything with home. I'd left Australia to discover a new world, to try new things yet my mindset was still firmly entrenched in Australian soil. Nothing could quiet measure up over here until of course the day an English strawberry passed my lips. Wow.

I've had a little history with strawberries - there were the tiny ones we used to dig for in Grandma's veggie patch and at the other end of the scale the larger than life strawberries retrieved each Christmas from the strawberry farm near mum's house. Despite how much emotional value I might attach to these two varieties of strawberries I'm afraid to say that neither can compare with the English strawberry. This strawberry is perfect in every way. Perfectly formed, just the right size, ranging from pink to bright red and absolutely bursting with flavour. It is also part of English culture and so to appreciate the strawberry is to appreciate this country I now live in. No summer picnic or day out at the tennis is ever complete without strawberries and cream.

And so I have my first ingredient for my first ever attempt at making jam.

I'm half way through this attempt as I write my blog and feel the need to confess - I am no Susie homemaker.

Step 1: Google jam recipe - tick
Step 2: Google ingredient 'jam sugar' - what the???
Step 3: Google 'substitute jam sugar' - tick - running with caster sugar and lemon
Step 4: Trip to Sainsburys at the end of our street. Bill is £14.38 ($23.32 australian) - just to be clear that is enough to buy 37 bottles of supermarket jam!
Step 5: Embrace the kitchen - not easily done given how little we've been home lately but almost everything seems to be where I left it except of course the thing I really want - no sign of metallic mixing bowl. Beginning to wonder if I actually own one or if I'm thinking of one I used to have in Oz. Not to worry figure I'll just side step the middle man and chuck everything into the saucepan which is where it'll end up anyway
Step 5: strawberries in, lemon juice in, bloody hell how much sugar??? seriously that is a ridiculous amount of sugar. 39 calories per tablespoon apparently.

And thats where I am now at with my jam making. The recipe tells me I now need to leave the strawberries to sit overnight which in my world means they'll sit there until about 5pm today because I don't have time to tackle to jam tomorrow. In the mean time I need to work out what I'm going to put all of this jam in - all 3kg of it! I may be down at the farmers market in Bermondsey Street next weekend selling my wares!