Lesley – Prize Winning Raspberry Jam

Well, we’ll find out on Friday if the judge at the Bega show thinks Lesley’s raspberry jam is a winner. I reckon, right now, it’s a winner!

Lesley pours her latest batch of award winning raspberry jam into jars. She'll pick the best looking jar for her Bega show entry.

Over a number of years, Lesley has won prizes for her raspberry jam in the local agricultural shows, often winning champion jam as well as first prize in the raspberry jam section.

Of course, everyone who is given a jar remarks on it’s quality. They’re mostly hoping for another jar.

Lesley spent the first twenty years of her life learning how to grow top quality berries including raspberries, strawberries, boysonberries, logonberries and thornless blackberries along with a variety of veggies and fruit.

These days, rather than tending acres of raspberries, Lesley has her twenty bushes in the back yard.

She manages the plants throughout the year and harvests in November and December, storing the berries in the freezer till required for making her prize winning jam.

“There are several secrets to producing prize winning jam,” says Lesley, and she lists the following:

Top quality fruit.
Picked in it’s optimum condition.
All fruit and sugar. No additives.
Don’t overcook.
Sterilized jars.