Fiona Thompson, MHWI committee member, reports, ‘We had a great evening of Jam Making with Rosie from Rosie makes Jam. She gave an interesting talk on the history of preserving and explained that in essence what we do during the preserving process is replace moisture with sugar, salt or vinegar or a combination of these. She encouraged us not to throw away things like squeezed lemons as, with a bit of planning, these can be made into wonderful things like lemoncello liquer. Rose has a great website with lots of recipes and a great mobile phone app which has  recipe finder that can be adjusted according to the amount of product you have (e.g. if you have a glut of courgettes).’  Rose makes jam

‘We made blackcurrant jam using 1kg of fruit, 1 kg of sugar and the juice of one-two lemons. We were all amazed by how easy it was. She gave us a few simple pointers and in a short time, we were all proudly pouring our jam into the jars. It was an inspiring evening and showed us that jam-making/preserving does not have to be the huge, time consuming task that some of us may remember our mothers and grandmothers enduring. A small amount of effort and simple equipment can result in some wonderful tasting jam. Get Jamming Ladies!’

Dan, the owner of  local company, Chocolate Alchemy, delighted Market Harborough WI members this week with an evening of making chocolate truffles – you can just imagine the truffles melting in your mouth them (check out Hazel below)!  You can join Dan on his Facebook page, too.