Glasgow care home Residents get experimental with jam making afternoonResidents at HC-One’s Ailsa Craig care home in Glasgow recently experimented with a bit of jam making after picking black gooseberries from their garden patch.

Ailsa Craig wellbeing coordinators Donna and Georgina assisted Residents with the picking of black gooseberries, showing them what to look for and showing them the bush that the berries came from. Donna and Georgina then asked Residents to take off all the ends that were attached to the berries, so they could prepare them to be washed.

Residents then helped Donna and Georgina put all the berries into a pot and added sugar, water, some apple and then brought them the boil. They then let it simmer to reduce until all the fruit was soft enough to mix into a jam.

Donna and Georgina then took the pot around the home to show the Residents that helped to prepare the berries what all their hard work had made. They also explained the process of cooking of the jam showing them what ingredients we added to the pot.

Ailsa Craig Resident Mary said: “That’s good that the berries have come from our own garden. I can’t believe how simple it was to make it.”

Residents were then offered digestive biscuits with the jam and asked their opinion if it was good, bad too sweet or sour.

Ailsa Craig Resident Margaret said: “It was very tasty. It was quite sweet but nice. It tasted so good we could sell it at our fetes.”

Ailsa Craig’s Home Manager said: “Residents enjoyed this activity very much, it’s good that the fruit is coming from our own garden. We will be continuing to make jam with other fruits that we can find growing in our garden.”