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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n… the craziness is usually quite limited in time and quantity, brought to a sudden halt by our return to England at the end of August. But not this year, oh no.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of their usual mid-August ripening, this summer our figs have been ripe and ready since early July – right when the school holiday started. And the supply has been aplenty over the past six week. So my supply of 20 jam jars, scrupulously collected, cleaned and brought all the way from London, has turned out to be ridiculously insufficient. Had I known, I would have not have introduced and stuck to my brand new “only matching jars” policy… Oh well…<\/p>\n\n\n Because if you are a jam-maker, you know: jars are the essential of jam-making, even more than the fruits. In France (and I’d be curious to know whether it is the same elsewhere), there is an untold rule, religiously followed by all amateur jam makers: “Thou Shalt Not Buy The Jars”. Ordering a chunk of them on Amazon would be pure anathema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So throughout the year, you (absurdly) eat supermarket-bought jam, ideally sticking to a single brand with pretty jars. You clean your jars. You remove (usually with great difficulty) the jam sticker. You cram your kitchen cupboards with empty, clean, sticker-free jars. Comes April, you spring-clean and get rid of half the jars you have put so much efforts into collecting, because summer was a long time ago as your brain has forgotten untold rule number two: “Thou Shalt Never Collect Enough Jars”. Believe me, you never will.<\/p>\n\n\n Thankfully, there is great sympathy among fellow jam-makers. One person’s jam-craze is always received with unrefrained enthusiasm. Friends and neighbours you have previously gifted your home-made jam will assure you of how good it was, boosting your jam-making motivation. Obviously the quality of the jam is irrelevant here, you get full marks for effort. Even remote acquaintances will show surprising enthusiasm. After sharing with the local greengrocer my despair of having run out of jars before running out of home-grown fig, I was kindly gifted twenty perfectly clean, ticker-free jars at my next visit. And I did not even buy the fruits! All this generosity is truly heart-warming.<\/p>\n\n\n Jam-making has for me many similarities to sewing. I secretly have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with both. I dislike being so uncontrollably compelled to making jar in the middle of summer, while I should be enjoying the sun and the sea . This is very similar to this uncontrollable urge to sew a dress when you have ten thousand other things to do (and a hundred dresses in your wardrobe). I also love to get into the grove of fruit picking and prepping, sugar and fruit mixing and boiling, jar sterilising and filing and labelling; all these efforts resulting in lovely food. Not dissimilar to fabric washing, ironing, cutting, overlocking and finally stitching to create a beautiful garment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of all, I love the memories associated to both hobbies, which were passed on to me as family traditions. I learnt sewing and jam-making from my mum, who herself had learned from her mum (although my grandma’s sewing was somewhat approximate I have been told). When my cleaner brought my two dozens of the 500 jars she had just discovered in her partner’s garden shed, it brough me back to my grand-parents’. Their house was build over a full basement which connected to the garden; and a quarter of this basement was solely jars, some empty and some filled with fruit and vegetable preserves… and jams of course! <\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, now the moment you have all been for: my famous <\/strong>(among a very select audience) fig recipe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am in no way a jam expert and in all honesty, I approach this all thing very approximately. Here are my personal rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not a sewing article for once but somehow related to my sewing passion – read on! And let me know what you think of the new-look website, I hope you like it. Is it just me? Every summer I seem to be seized by an uncontrollable jam-making frenzy, which only stops when the fruit supply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn unstoppable supply of fruits this summer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Compress_20260816_172008_8085-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBeware the unwritten jam jar rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Compress_20260816_172008_8436-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nMeet the jam-making community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Compress_20260816_173229_9088-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nSo much like sewing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My fig jam recipe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Compress_20260816_172007_7564-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Compress_20260816_172007_7734-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n
My jam-making tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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