Sunday 16 March 2014

First Brocante...

Of this year, that is!

A lovely day of warm sunshine,so loads of people were at the brocante and a good time was had by all.

I got some great Tupperware...


Don't you just love Tupperware?  This little lot cost me 2.5 euros...


And I also found a sweet picture, hand-carved in wood, of a little fish...


...for 2 euros.  I think it will look good in my bathroom.

And then there was the pile of jam jars at 50 cents each - some big ones which I could use to bottle tomatoes later in the year and some 'normal' sized ones which I can use for jam.


Yes - they're those lovely Bonne Maman ones!

But you know, my record for jam-making is not superb.  Last Autumn I made jam with some Reine Claude plums I had been given, but I didn't realise that the riper the fruit is, the less well the jam will set - and it didn't.  So I'm going to re-do that with some pectin that Janet, my friend, is bringing me on Tuesday and hopefully I will then have some JAM!

But there's also the marmalade I made about a week ago from this recipe.  It was a really great recipe but with one flaw.  It said to boil the oranges in 2.3 litres of water  (which was a great idea and made them really easy to peel and get the pith off the peel and make sure the strips of peel were not chewy when eaten) and also said not to discard this water. However, the water was not 2.3 litres AFTER the boiling and there was no mention of what it should have been finally.  I made it up to 2.3 litres again and I now wonder if this was too much, as the marmalade DID NOT SET!!!!!

However, I have since discovered that some of the preserving sugar I used did not contain pectin (you would think I had learnt my lesson by now) so this probably contributed to the non-setting.

So, when Janet brings the pectin I will be boiling up the marmalade again too, and hope for a set.  It did look, smell and taste lovely while cooking...


Even if it is till pretty liquid in the jars!

So, hopefully, I will soon be able to show you a brilliant selection of marmalade and Reine Claude jam - watch this space!

3 comments:

Sharon said...

I'm glad that the brocante season has started up again Penny as I love to see what you buy....I'm always envious too because we have nothing like it here, except for the massive secondhand market in Fuengirola on Saturdays...and they're full of junk. We went last weekend but couldn't even park so that was a complete waste of time!!!
Love to read about your marmalade and jam making too. My mum made lemon marmalade when she was here on one of her many trips...it didn't set either and I think she used pectin! So I wish you luck and hope to see your successful jars on here soon.
Hugs Sharon in Spain xx

Elizabethd said...

Wonderful to find jars which have their lids.

Babajeza said...

Yummy! :-)