Part 2 looks pretty simple, but my experience has shown me that every saucepan of potential jam cooks differently. Its dependent on the weather, the moisture, the saucepan and type of ingredients and the chemical makeup of your raw ingredients. So when going through this process, watch the pot closely, if you see a colour change, turn off the heat its too far gone, and don’t leave the room while its cooking.

One of the tips I still stand by is to start off with the heat lower than higher and invest in a cooking or sugar thermometer, they can be helpful. *once a jam or marmalade in the cooking process hits a temperature of 105C (221F) its at setting temperature.

Stay tuned tomorrow we will cover a few things like – sterilizing your jam jars and how to tell when you jam is truly set. ♥

PART 1 – Jam – its a tricky business… with wonderful rewards

lets start at the very beginning.. a very good place to start…

The Ingerdients

• caster sugar
• raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• strawberries
• white peach
• yellow nectarine
• 1 lemon
• note : for every 500 grams of fruit (fresh or frozen) use 1.5 cups of sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon (this is a good ratio to work by)

When choosing your jam combo the best way to look at it is to work out what you know is going to taste good as a cooked fruit. A jam is usually made with a bit of lemon or lime, as the pectin in the citrus fruit forms a chemical reaction enabling the jam to set.

♥ Learning to make jam is a bit of hit and miss.. or shall we say ‘trial & error’ but once you have the hang of it, you can make many different variations and try lots of things. Each season brings new ideas, summer fruit is the most popular but sometimes a winter fruit like persimmon and kiwi can see you come up with a beautiful condiment to have with fresh yogurt or with a bowl of freshly toasted muesli. Its not just about spreading over a thick piece of toast and butter. Its so much more…….

Lets look what we have below (picture)….. this recipe was a simple case of Fresh (or frozen) raspberries, some fresh lemon and sugar.

On tomorrows style tree post

Part 2 – cooking the fruit and sugar to perfection…….♥

At The Style Tree we appreciate innovation, attention to detail and beautiful packaging design. I personally have a love of packaging design and have since I was 15 years of age.  There is nothing better than being stopped in your tracks by something relatively simple being presented in a way that makes you want to buy it, if for no other reason than you really want that product in your sight daily. I admit im a sucker, and have many a product that I just look at and don’t use often. Its usually unexpected things like a jar of honey.

Babee’s Organic Honey – is no exception ♥

Packaging Design by  Ah&Oh Studio | Based in Poznan, Poland “A simple and litlle idea of packaging for honey. Here is an extract from their website explaining the creative process. ‘We tried to treat the jar as a playground for a character design. The Dark cap and stripes made the idea quite clear. Through this project we tried to encourage kids to reach for honey instead of refined sugar. Especially for them we created the logo which smiles like a bee’s face. It’s hand calligraphed, custom made, and it softens the overall simple, geometric look of the packaging.”

Im must say the mint colour carry ‘tote’ adds a certain something to the over all design and fits in beautifully with our ‘mint Moment’ theme this week. I might add I was very surprised and excited to see some wonderful design coming out of Poland (my heritage).

♣ Ah&oh Studio - www.ahandoh.com

*note – at the time of posting this the Ah&Oh Studio site had experienced some problems. Keep trying they have some amazing ideas and projects worth looking at. ♥