WHAT I LOVE ABOUT JUNE

Usually June sees me jetting off somewhere in the world to cover a football tournament. Over the past 10 years I have visited South Africa, Poland, Brazil, France and Russia and this year I should have been spending the month in lovely, beautiful Rome. Which means I normally miss out on the juicy strawberries that grow in the garden.

However a certain pandemic has put paid to that and I literally get to reap the fruits of my labour in the garden. Never before has my garden had so much attention given to it. The past 12 weeks has seen me spending a serious amount of time out there. I don't know what I would have done without it.

The flowers beds are starting to burst with colour but the crowning glory, without a doubt, is the abundance of strawberries which have arrived. Apparently, according to the "experts" this year is a bumper crop because of the amazing sunny spring weather we have had. I'm no expert but I concur that I have them by the bucket loads in the strawberry bed. We have to cover them with netting, not because of the birds who think they are tasty but mainly from our dogs, Bella & Hamish. Hamish our 11 year old Westie discovered the delights of strawberries (and Tomatoes) a few years ago and taught Bella the cockapoo how harvest them. They are too clever, they gently pick the strawberries off without biting into them until they have find a place to hide and munch on them!

This week I was able to harvest my first bounty to turn into Strawberry & Champagne Jam (after I taste tested one or two or 10). They are so sweet! I picked well over a kilo in just 5 mins and there's more to come. There really is something special about making jam from produce which comes from your own back garden. I know that there are no pesticides or other horrible chemicals which could impair the taste or cause other problems. I can tell if I've had a fruit with chemicals on if it hasn't been washed because my tongue swells up - lovely!

Anyway, enough of my weird problems!

Within 30 minutes, I had heated the sugar, added the strawberries, splashed in the champagne and the jam was in the jars. Now you can't get much fresher jam than that!

Luckily I get to taste the jam when I do the set test. Every time I taste this jam it literally puts a smile on my face!

So despite still being on some strange kind of lockdown I am happy thanks to strawberries. This is why I love June!!!!!

Thanks for reading. Stay safe.

Kylie