Great preserving secrets from traffic jam

Maureen has been selling them at the Ostend Market under her own Traffic Jam Label for over 20 years. I purchased several jars on a recent visit to Waiheke Island. They were well worth the journey over.

For breakfast we enjoyed the plum jam, scented with vanilla on buttered toast .The red pepper jelly with its sweet but piquant flavour went well with croissants, camembert and ham at a special brunch. I managed to hide the blueberry conserve, chunky and laced with brandy, at the back of the fridge for a while until visitors unexpectedly arrived. Served in some crepes and accompanied by vanilla ice cream it made a delicious and easy dessert.

Maureen used to grow her own fruit but now lives in a retirement village.  Fortunately she has lots of good friends who give her fruit, and she also knows where all the wild fruit trees are.  She continues to experiment with new recipes. Her recipe for vanilla and plum jam was actually a mistake but it turned out to be very popular.

She is a keen recycler and recycles her jam jars. It takes her longer to scrape off the labels and clean the jars than it takes to make the jams.

Maureen learnt the art of making jam from her grandmother in England who brought her up. She can remember making her first marmalade with her Gran when she was 4 years old. It was cooked on an open fireplace in a brass pan. But suddenly a whole lot of soot came down the chimney and some of it fell on the marmalade, ruining it. These days she is teaching her own grand children to make jam. Two of the boys are the best at it.

Last week Maureen taught the locals to make some of her favourite jams at the Great Waiheke Plum Drive. This event took place at Palm Beach Hall’s kitchen. The idea behind it came from a group of Waiheke locals who were keen to make sure that the plums from Waiheke’s plum trees would not be wasted.

James Samuel, one of the organisers of the Great Waiheke Plum Drive, said he had no trouble persuading Maureen to share her skills for this event as she is community-minded and generous. He describes her as a sweetheart and an adventurer who is frugal and wise.  The secret of her youth is that she loves to be around young people.

He explained that the great Waiheke Plum Drive was run as a social enterprise. Everyone was asked to contribute what they could, such as plums, jars, jam-making skills and recipes. In return they were given jam back to feed their families. The event was powered by a network called Ooooby (which stands for Out Of Our Own Back Yards) that encourages locals to grow as much of their own food as possible. This network grew out of the Transition Towns movement (am international movement to equip communities to move from oil dependency to local resilience).

The Great Waiheke Plum Drive was a very successful. By the end of the day Maureen had taught lots of locals how to make jam and 140 pots had been produced.

Plans are also afoot to make sure that future generations on Waiheke will always have a ready supply of fruit on hand. A local “Fabulous Fruit Tree” group has started to realise its ten year vision of planting 20,000 fruit and nut trees on the island’s public and private land. Their aim: to make Waiheke the Fruit Bowl of the Hauraki Gulf .

The Recipes

Maureen has kindly shared three of her recipes. But first some rules and words of wisdom:

1. The first rule is that the jars should be sterilized in the oven and filled when they are still warm.

2. The sugar should be warmed in a big bowl in the oven too, as cold sugar cools the jam too much and too fast.

3. To test your jam put a saucer in the fridge to get cold. When you think the jam is ready put a little hot jam on the saucer and put it back in the fridge briefly. Then brush over it with you finger, if it looks wrinkly its ready. If not, boil the jam a little longer.

4. And finally, she has some good advice: “Just do it and try it. If you have a rotten jam it might still make a good dessert!”

Plum and Vanilla Jam

Ingredients

1 kg of plums

1 cup of water (no water if frozen)

Warm sugar

Vanilla pods

Vanilla essence

Method

Boil together till plums are soft

Measure and add cup for cup of warm sugar stirring while boiling

Add 1 whole vanilla pod, cut open to expose seeds and 1 teaspoon of good vanilla essence and boil till sets on a cold saucer

Remove pod and cut into 4, putting 1 piece into each jar ( another pod for more jars)

Remove some plum stones if liked 

Put a drop of vanilla essence into each jar

Fill with hot jam and then again add 1 drop of vanilla essence on top of jam in jar before cooling and covering

Blueberry Liqueur Conserve

Ingredients

1 kg blueberries

½ cup of lemon juice

1cup of water

Method

If fresh and unfrozen simmer until fruit is soft, stirring often

Measure and add cup for cup of warm sugar and stir until dissolved

Boil the mixture hard, still stirring frequently for ½ hour.

Test on a cold saucer in the fridge.

The jam should have thickened and ideally wrinkle on the saucer when touched.

Add a good dash of brandy and stir in.

Cover and leave for a few minutes.

Into each jar put about a dessertspoon of brandy

Fill with hot jam

Put another spoonful of brandy on top

Seal when cold with sterilized lids

Red Pepper Jelly

Ingredients

6-8 large red peppers

3 cups of cider vinegar

8 cups white sugar ( yes really!)

3 pkts of “Jamset” (pectin)

Method

Cut and seed peppers

Whizz in the blender with some of the vinegar ( can do this in 3-4 lots)

Put all in a large pan with the rest of the vinegar

Bring to rolling boil for ½ hour

Add pectin

Boil hard again.

Test on a cold saucer to check if set has been reached (sometimes but NOT always some additional pectin is necessary)

Maureen’s Jams, Chutneys and Preserves are available under her Traffic Jam Label at the Ostend market which runs from 8am -12 noon every Saturday on Waiheke Island.