Spiced blood plum jam

My singing teacher has been inspiring me to get into the kitchen.  The last couple of weeks have started with at least 10 minutes talking about our latest cooking experiments, hers involving chutneys and jams.  She graciously shared a jar of her Nelly Melba jam (peach and raspberry), so it's only fair that I return her jar refilled with something from my garden and kitchen.

I thought I'd try altering my basic plum jam recipe, using the blood plums from our tree, but adding some of our apples and spices.  Here's what I did:

600g blood plums, cleaned, stoned and chopped
400g apples (I used 3 granny smith and a golden delicious), peeled, cored and chopped
800g white sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cardamon
juice of one orange

Prepare jars and lids by sterilising in boiling water in large saucepan, then transfer to warm oven to dry and stay warm.

Slowly warm the fruit in a large saucepan with the sugar, stirring with wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved.
Add spices and orange juice.  Stir gently and allow to come to boil.  Check for setting point by dropping a spoonful onto a cool plate. When jam is cool, you should be able to draw your finger through the jam without it being too liquid .. the line your finger made should remain.  When setting point is reached, bottle into warm jam jars with a small ladle, then seal with lid immediately.

I printed off some labels from Pinterest, found HERE.

I'm quite happy with the flavour of this 'experiment', and it has a really nice consistency also.