The Cottage Smallholder

Funny enough I did turn them upside down for a while but it was probably too late when I did it - I must have read that somewhere and it stuck in my mind. Anyway - not too fussed as it tastes so good and will hope for a better result next time. I think I need make sure mint isn't chopped up too much. I'm hoping to do some Rosemary jelly today or tomorrow. I steamed 5lbs apples this morning and have lots of lovely juice to use. There was 3lbs crab apples and 2 lbs eaters (sharp ones) so I'm hoping it will produce a nice jelly. Just going to look for a recipe.

My OH also brought home a couple of punnets of strawberries which I think was a bit of hint. It was the first lot of jam I made and it has all gone now. I doubt I will get much jam out of 2 punnets though.

PS. Turns out the wild cherries are sloes after all  I told him I thought they were but he said all the photos and info of sloes say they have very sharp thorns on branches and the ones he picked didn't. He then spoke to one of the gardeners and they confirmed they were sloes - hence my jam being a bit sharp! However, I had it on toast this morning and it actually tastes a lot better than it did yesterday.

Happy days  lovley weather and lots of lovely jam.

Thanks for tips - I'm a bit worried the rosemary jelly wont have enough of the rosemary flavour (as juice smelled very appley after steaming the two together) so I have left the rosemary bunches steeping in the hot juice for a while.

I have 2 1/2 pints of juice - can you advise how much lemon juice & sugar I need for this amount please?

Also can I be a real pain and ask about the apple pulp I have left over. I peeled and cored the apples before steaming (but wrapped up the cores and peel in muslin and put them in steamer at same time) and now have 1lb of apple pulp which I have blended down. It is a bit of a browny colour so I was wondering if I could make apple cheese with it rather than use if for apple sauce. I dont have a clue how to make cheese - some recipes say it takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours - is that correct. I'm up to my eyes at the moment so maybe I could freeze the pulp for a quieter day.

p.s the apples were a mixture of windfalls that were mainly eaters, with some quite sharp ones so not sure what pectin level will be if that is important.