SOME time ago I attempted to make jam from the quinces in our garden – and failed.
But my article on the subject was more successful, attracting welcome attention and sound advice from an unexpected quarter.
Former Methodist minister and preserve-maker extraordinaire Richard Thompson emailed to explain that he was an old hand at quince jelly.
In fact, he’s been making jams, jellies and marmalades of all kinds since the early 1970s when he and his family lived in a mission in Sierra Leone.
Inspired by the bountiful citrus trees in their compound he began with marmalade, found it to be a satisfying hobby, and continued when they returned to Britain.
Now retired and a resident of Scholes near Holmfirth, Richard has turned home preserving into a cottage industry, raising around £1,500 a year for local charities.
His jams, jellies and marmalades are sold under the label Minister Preserves.
They’re a favourite with members of Huddersfield Choral society where Richard is a member and also sell at the churches where Richard, now 69, still preaches, among other places.
Funds from sales are currently divided between the Huddersfield Methodist Mission – where he worked until 10 years ago – Huddersfield Choral Society’s Welfare Fund and Junior Choirs and the Sheffield Oratorio Chorus. Richard and his wife, Margaret, are both members of the Chorus.
Richard says preserve making is both a creative and therapeutic hobby.
“I used to find that a lot of the stressfulness of my days was in the evening after meetings when I’d come back at 10pm and then spend two or three hours jam-making to wind down,” he explained.
“I’m experimenting with new jams all the time. I like variety, but I don’t think you can beat my thick cut Seville marmalade.”
Among his best sellers are his ginger marmalade which has a hint of chilli and wild bramble jelly, boiled up from Yorkshire’s free blackberry bounty.
But Minister Preserves cover every variety from summer fruits and rhubarb with ginger to spiced lemon marmalade and kiwi and Bramley jelly.
Richard collects seasonal fruits and stores them in a freezer at home – he had to buy a second freezer just for his jam making. In the days when he worked at Huddersfield Methodist Mission he used the spare capacity in the centre’s cafe for his fruit stock.
He buys a crate of Seville oranges every January, quarters them and freezes the pieces until they are needed for marmalade making.
In the summer and autumn, friends and supporters gather fruit and donate it to his enterprise, along with empty jam jars but he also forages for wild raspberries (he keeps the location secret) and blackberries from Wooldale and Scholes.
Quince are harvested from a shrub in his own garden.
“It originally belonged to my mother who asked me if I could make anything from the bush in her garden that was groaning with fruit,” said Richard.
“It has moved with us three times over 25 years and still produces a lot of fruit.”
If he needs more he travels to the Middlewood tram interchange car park in Sheffield where there are shrubs laden with quince.
He also has a Bramley apple tree in his garden and a crab apple. Both have fruit high in pectin, the substance essential for setting preserves.
Most of Richard’s preserves sell for around £2 a jar and he donates all of the proceeds to the charities.
“Someone suggested that I start a business and said I could make a lot of money out of it, but I don’t want to,’’ he said. I’m busy enough as it is.”
Never use over-ripe fruit. Slightly under-ripe fruit has more pectin and will make a fast-setting preserve.
Collect seasonal fruit and freeze immediately after picking. Jams and jellies can then be made at any time you like.
Richard said: “I put half a pound of Bramley apple puree in all of my boils because they are high in pectin and help them to set. I have no proof of this but I also think that having more than one fruit acid helps the preserves to gel.”
The basic recipe for a non-citrus preserve is equal weights of sugar and fruit. Boil to achieve a setting point and test the preserve by dipping a cold spoon into the mixture and dropping some onto a cool plate. Place in the fridge for two minutes. If the surface of the jam wrinkles when cool then it is setting. For marmalades and citrus preserves the basic quantities are 1lb of fruit to 2lbs of sugar and one pint of water.
Try experimenting with different flavours. Richard uses spices, stem and root ginger, chilli and even mint in his preserves.
If, like me, you want to make a quince preserve then boil up the fruit and drip through muslin to extract the seeds and skins before adding 1lb of sugar to each pint of juice. It’s also best to use the fruit of the Mediterranean quince, which is fleshier. However, the ornamental quince or Japanese quince, of which mine is a variety, can still be made into a preserve.
