Jam has become a symbol of frugal chic in these days of the New Austerity. Instead of being an indulgence, high in evil sugars, it is now seen as a fabulous method of preserving nature’s bounty and thinking ahead — and of course, it tastes great.
A new way of making jam has been popularised in the US by the Los Angeles artists’ collective Fallen Fruit, which encourages people to map their neighbourhood’s fruit trees, organise harvesting expeditions and bring people together to make jam.
Such collective cooking — you might call it ‘jamming’ — is also taking place in the UK. Organic grower Stephen Watts often noticed how much neglected fruit hung unpicked on trees as he bicycled around his home city of Sheffield. In 2007 he co-founded Abundance, a bank of 150 volunteers who pick the fruit and redistribute it to community groups. From August to November, they hold group cooking sessions to make jam and chutney from the apples, plums and pears that they gather. ‘It’s a nice social occasion,’ says Watts. ‘You sit around peeling apples, washing plums, then chuck them in a pan with sugar, boil it up and jar it. It’s so much more fun cooking with other people.’
Abundance groups are now springing up all over the UK as a social, food-for-free way of getting together and making something tasty out of what might have often gone to waste. ‘A tree might give 200kg of fruit but the owner only wants a bagful,’ says Stephen. Abundance is a simple idea that harnesses a bounty of produce, our dislike of waste and the pleasure principle. No wonder it works. Now will the jam-and-‘Jerusalem’ WI get involved?
Fallen Fruit: fallenfruit.org
Grow Sheffield: growsheffield.com
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