You can't beat nurture

I often think how funny it is that things you hated as a child turn out to be things you cherish as an adult. Like going to tea shops that serve cream horns. For me, one particularly hated activity that rolled around every year was picking blackberries on Hackney marshes.
My parents were obsessed with it. Every bloody Autumn off we'd go, walking across disused railway lines (which of course I was terrified weren't actually disused), to scratch ourselves senseless picking fruit I didn't even like. Mum would spend ages turning it into a sort of compote in the freezer, which then I'd have to tolerate ruining perfectly good ice cream.
Now, however, I'd walk a long way for a bountiful patch of brambles and like nothing more than having pink-stained figures as a badge of honour. What I like most though is the satisfaction of urban foraging and producing something delicious which was essentially free.
This time of year is elderflower season, and Peckham Rye seems to be full of huge swathes of creamy flowers, itching to be made into something good. The floral sweetness of elderflower is absolutely one of my favourite tastes - it is absolutely a gentle English summer. After the Great Cordial Disaster of 2011, I've been afeared of bottling it, but, having also had a batch of my mum's rhubarb needing to be eaten, thought I'd transform it into a rhubarb and elderflower jam.
The method was a bit odd - wrap the elderflowers in a muslin and place in a bowl, chop up the rhubarb and layer on top, add the sugar. Now I had twice as many elderflowers as the recipe said, because I like it and couldn't believe the flavour would infuse otherwise. I also didn't have any muslin so used a clean popsock (which is what I always use for marmalade too). I ignored the instructions to give it a toss every 12 hours for 2 days and just left it, covered for about a week. Tbh, I was expecting some kind of mouldy fruit hell when I took the foil off but the sugar had transformed into an elderflower infused syrup in which the rhubarb chunks seemed to be bobbing away fairly happily.
So, I tipped the whole lot into a pan, simmered until the fruit was soft (not including the elderflower), then ramped up the heat to a roiling boil until it set (a soft set, it has to be said).
Generally, I'm not one to boast, but it is pretty much the nicest jam I've ever tasted - an undercurrent of sharp rhubarb but a bright, floral flavour that makes your mouth feel fairly happy. I plan to swirl some through a vanilla sponge before baking, and I can't help but think it would be pretty awesome on a scone, topped with a big dollop of clotted cream.
So, my pantry (well, shelf in my garage) is all the richer and I won't be sharing it with anyone, because I love it so much.

Hurrah for elderflowers I say.

With love
GG