Blow your head off Chilli Jam is one of our most potent and popular products, but annoyingly it contains no foraged ingredients. It is also one of the most expensive to make, but such is its popularity that it is a virtually permanent fixture on the Wild Side stall.

The reason for its expense is the volume of red peppers it contains - 2.5 kilos in every 24 jars. We therefore try to buy the peppers at the wholsesale market, but of this is impossible we will look for offers at Aldi or Lidl, a strategy which istn't without its perils. The last time I made Chilli Jam I bought 5 kilos pf peppers from Aldi in Brownhills and in the process bought just about every red pepper they had on display. As I filled my fifth bag a rather annoyed cusomer reached over and grabbed two "before you buy them ALL". 

With Chilli Jam once more on the agenda I again ventured into Aldi and emerged unscathed with 3kg, but a defecit of 2kg. Rather than give up I opted to pay an extra 3p per pepper and bought a further 2kg from Tesco, and as I was paying a voice behind be asked if I was trying to corner the market in Brownhills. Given my twitchiness on he subject I was immediately on the defensive and asked if he had been in Aldi with me. Apparently not, he had simply never seen anyone buy 15 peppers a the same time! Explanations were offered and a new customer was won!

So today was Chilli Jam day, which sarted at 7.00am with two hours of prep and was followed with a lunchtime bottling session with 50 jars of the fiery preserve lined up on the island.

With the snow falling outside there seemed no point in stopping, so I launched into the five batches of marmalade I had prepared yesterday evening. Gradually, the aromtic and nostril tingling chilli gave way to the citrus tang of the marmalade and batch after batch rolled off the production line till at 6.00pm the last 10 Sloe Whisky Seville's were stood cooling in the work surface.

So, at the end of a mega preserve making fest we have nearly 100 jars prepared for labeling, and another four batches of Sloe Whisky Marmalade cut and soaking nready for cooking tomorrow. Reminder to self - dont be so ambitious next time.