Recipe for Bramble and Apple Jelly

Ingredients
Brambles
Apples
Sugar

Method

Say "yes" when two small children ask to go out for a cycle round the village when you would really rather have a Sunday afternoon nap on the sofa.
Pack two carrier bags in your pocket just in case.
Take the route your better half suggests because he clearly has a plan. He packed the bags after all.
Listen carefully to two small children squealing about spotting loads of berries.
Stop and have a good laugh picking, and eating, as many as you can.


Pause at an apple tree randomly growing at the edge of the road, spotted previously by the route deviser, and stretch precariously to reach the ones that are high up, knowing that someone got there before and picked all the easy ones.

Give all the fruit a good wash, rough chop the apples and throw the whole lot, seeds, core and all into a pot and bring to a gentle boil, very slowly.

Run to the shop and buy a pair of tights because you do not own a jelly net and somehow you have to let the juice drip through leaving all the seeds and stuff behind.

Leave the fruit to drip for a couple of hours and quickly realise that the fruit is such a thick unjuicy mixture that the tights were a waste of a run to the shop.

Spend thirty minutes pushing the mixture through a sieve.

Test a little, a lot and often, just to enjoy the sheer yummyness of the very, very thick juice.

Put in fridge because it is now way too late on a Sunday night to do the next stage.

After a tough day at work, and at least two hours of homework ahead, take timeout to boil the fruit up for ten minutes with a 2 to 3 ratio of sugar to fruit. (g to ml!)

Pour into a jar

Enjoy!

Enjoy a whole lot. Eat lots of toast at various times of the day and night. Make a batch of scones. Make a Lemon Drizzle cake for friends who are coming over (hey, I have lemons that need to be used up!) so you do not have to share any of that deeply fruity goodness.

Anyone want to go for a cycle?