UK Fruit Frenzy After Hottest Spring Ever - Wild Jam Making Set to Boom

21 June 2011

Foraging expert predicts bumper year for wild fruit and berries; Wild Jam
Maker app

Jam-makers are licking their lips in anticipation after an expert predicted
what could be the best ever year for wild fruit and berry harvests in the
UK.

Leading foraging expert Chris Bax said the warmest spring on record has
filled the nation's trees and bushes with blossom, which points to a bumper
fruit harvest.

Wild raspberries and strawberries are already starting to show and there are
good signs of a fantastic blackthorn crop; meanwhile, commercially grown
strawberries are already 150 per cent up and grape harvests are expected to
set new records.

All of which is music to the ears of the nation’s jam-makers. Once
considered the preserve of older generations, it is enjoying a renaissance
thanks to celebrity jam-makers such as Kate Moss and Zoe Ball who have
helped jam jars sales double in the last 12 months.

Mr Bax, who runs Taste The Wild and is an advisor to British cooker
manufacturer Stoves, said: “We’ve had optimum growing conditions with a
harsh, cold winter and a spring with little frost and the warmest ever
temperatures – a perfect climatic event for our nation’s wild fruit and
berries.

“I expect the country to be laden with fruit, and with wild species such
hawthorn and wild cherry in abundance, it’s great news if you want to make
your own jam with free fruit.”

To capitalise on the bumper fruit harvest and the appetite for jam-making,
Stoves has commissioned Mr Bax to produce an iPhone app showing how to
collect free wild fruit and berries with recipes for home-made jam.

The ‘Wild Jam Maker’ app lists fruits and berries growing wild in the
UK and recipes include Sea Buckthorn Jam and Wild Cherry Jam. The free app
can be downloaded from the Apple App store now at
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/wild-jam-maker/id442848466?mt=8.

Jane Rylands, Stoves’ brand manager, said: “Jam-making is very much in
vogue at the moment and with such a bumper crop of fruit this year, our free
app will help Britain’s jam-makers find new and interesting recipes using
ingredients direct from the land.”

Free fruit is bursting not just from the great British countryside, but also
in our towns and cities too – you can pick rowan, blackberry and cherry
plum in urban areas.
The world’s biggest jam festival – the WI Stoves Real Jam Festival –
will take place in October this year. Last year’s event attracted more
than 500 entries from men, women and children across the UK.