SUMMER RECIPE
Intense berries are still the true taste of summer to Kapiti jam maker Te Horo Jams co-owner Kate Gibbs describes how traditional jam recipes passed down from her mother and grandmother are the cornerstones of their family business.
MY EARLIEST memories of berry picking and jammaking go back to when I was 3 years old, staying at my grandmother’s cottage overlooking Lake Wanaka.
It was an old stone house covered with rambling roses with a huge old-fashioned kitchen where my grandmother cooked up steaming pots of sweet, intense, delicious-smelling jam.
Early on summer mornings, we used to trek down a dusty road and pick berries in a cage. That was our job, picking the raspberries, strawberries, black currents and gooseberries for breakfast. I can still see them on the table in big bowls with cream.
Kate Gibbs shows off her jam drops, wee biscuits filled with jam.
The berries were so intense. They were, and still are, the taste of summer to me.
Later I went to Lincoln University and studied horticulture, worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, before getting into the wine industry as a viticultural consultant. Based in Auckland, my husband and I decided to leave the corporate world and return to the country to have a family.
We wanted the children to be able to play in the country, climb trees, make forts, have ponies, living that amazing lifestyle Te Horo offers with its little country school, agricultural days, not rushing around dashing across busy streets to dance classes.
We always had a small commercial kitchen on the farm and I used my mother and grandmother’s traditional recipes for making jam using fruit, sugar and a little butter to stop the pan frothing up and boiling over on the stove.
We still stir the jams with wooden spoons. The only difference is that instead of using second grade, soft fruit, we use premium grade.
But the recipes are the same, passed down from my mother and grandmother. The jewel-covered jars of preserved fruit used to come out throughout winter and jams were used in puddings and cakes. We regularly ate scones and pikelets with jam and cream for morning and afternoon tea and we never got fat – we were all active.
My mother’s kitchen in Wellington was ahead of her time, early gourmet. She had salamis hanging in the kitchen and big jars of olives which was kind of new to New Zealand. She had a rum pot, a terracotta pot she filled with seasonal fruits topped up with rum to preserve them. For pudding, the rum pot would come out and you would ladle the preserved fruit onto icecream. She also made feijoa champagne and kiwifruit wine when we were growing them.
Jam drops, or thumbprint biscuits are a family favourite passed down through the generations. You get a little round ball of dough, put it on a baking tray, press your thumb in it, fill the dent with jam and bake them for about 10 minutes. It is a bit like an old-fashioned shrewsbury. In my cookbook they are called Jack’s Jam Drops from when my wee son made them and loved them the most. Kids love them, they are so easy. They loved coming home from school and having a warm cookie with a glass of milk. Baking makes a house a home.
The traditional jam drop was raspberry but we also use blackberry and boysenberry – any dark jam is lovely.
Food has always been about family, a shared experience. Christmas Day is still at Mum and Dad’s, everyone around the table pitching in, helping with the meal, building memories. 180g softened butter 1 cup sugar 2 cup plain flour
teaspoon baking powder 1 egg Te Horo blackberry jam Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add an egg and beat well. Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix to a dough.
Roll two teaspoonfuls into small balls – flatten slightly on to a lined tray – press a thumb into the middle to make an indent.
Fill the hole with Te Horo blackberry jam. Bake for 10 minutes until golden. Add more jam once out of the oven.
Cool on wire racks.