How to make Lilly Pilly Jam - a delicious Australian bush tucker delight

When we moved to our current home about 20 years or so ago we found a Lilly Pilly bush in our front yard.  This is a plant native to the eastern states of Australia, but which grows well in the west too. It has very fleshy leaves and a very attractive small flower, which you can see below, but which withers almost immediately if picked.  The bees love them.

Following flowering a small red fruit forms, about the length of your thumbnail. We have tasted them from time to time over the years. They have a crisp flesh, not unpleasant taste, though slightly acid, and probably an acquired taste.  They have a small stone in the middle. You can see my bush and the fruit below here. 

The origin of the name Lilly Pilly is unknown. The first recorded sighting of a lilly pilly in Australia was Syzygium paniculatum. On May 3 1770 at Botany Bay botanist Joseph Banks stated in his journal: They "found also several trees which bore fruit of the Jambosa kind, much in colour and shape resembling cherries; of these they eat plentifully and brought home also abundance, which we eat with much pleasure tho they had little to recommend them but light acid."
From:  Australian Plants OnLine 

There are several varieties of Lilly Pilly, belonging to the  Myrtaceae family. 
The Lilly Pilly was a bush tucker for the Aboriginal inhabitants, and was prized by early European settlers for making jams and jellies.  It seems to have been used soon after the establishment of Sydney town in New South Wales. 

Jam making is a tradition in my family and I have been intending to make Lilly Pilly Jam ever since I discovered the plant in our front garden, and yesterday I did. My husband wanted to prune the bush as it had got quite big and was starting to develop a scale infestation as it had the previous year. So I picked about a kilo and a half of fruit and made the jam on Saturday morning. 

 The recipe I used came originally from the National Trust of Australia, New South Wales, and is in my Australia's Home Made Jams and Preserves Book compiled by sugar company CSR. I have used many recipes in this little book. 

The recipe was actually for jelly, but I adapted it to make jam. 

Lilly Pilly Jam 

Remove stalks and stones from the fruit and wash well. Place in the pan with a little water. I used 2 cups of water to 1.245kgs of fruit. Cook until fruit is tender (about an hour). I also added one lemon cut in half to the pan as the lemon will help with setting. 
When the fruit is tender add the same weight of sugar as the weight of fruit. 
Boil till jam sets when tested. This took about another hour, but will really depend on the quantity you are cooking. 
Remove the lemon halves, bottle the jam in sterile jars and seal immediately. 

The jam is a beautiful deep pink-red colour and I think tastes a little like a mix between plum and strawberry jam. Delicious! I made scones this morning so my family could taste the jam. They all enjoyed it, so I think I will from now on be making Lilly Pilly jam every year. 

Another reference to the Lilly Pilly can be found in May Gibb's children's book, The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, an Australian classic about the gum nut babies first published in 1918. I told you about the bad Banksia Men from the book a couple of weeks ago. Please click here if you missed it -  Celebration of the Australian Banksia

Here is an illustration from the book of the characters Lilly Pilly and Ragged Blossom. In the book Lilly Pilly is an actress.  You can see here below on the left with the lilly pilly fruit forming the skirt of her dress. 
For more about May Gibbs click here - May Gibbs

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post about the Lilly Pilly. If you are in Australia and you have it growing in your garden, I hope you will make some Lilly Pilly Jam. 
Is there a native fruit that you make into jam? Perhaps you would like to share with us in the comments.

Here are a couple of references on the web:
Burke's Back Yard
Australian Native Plants Society
Evergreen Growers - scale pest on Lilly Pilly
Taste Australia - Bush Food


Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday
Travel Photo Mondays
 Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
 Life Thru the Lens
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
What's It Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

 You might also like - 
Quandongs, delicious Australian bush food
And slices of quince which they ate with a runcible spoon
Tamarillos, lost food of the Incas 

Cumquats - from tree to marmalade

Have you ever had cumquats? I had not till just recently. My sister has a tree in her new house, so she sent me a few kilo to make Marmalade. So I hunted through my favorite little preserves recipe book - "Australia's Home Made Jams & Preserves" (complied by CSR) - and I found a cumquat marmalade recipe. It was called "Old Government House Cumquat Marmalade" and the notation said the recipe came from the National Trust of Australia, New South Wales - so it must be a very old recipe.

I had never tasted cumquats before, let alone made something from them, or photographed them. They are a very small fruit which is very bitter. They have seeds, and I was determined to take them all out before making the marmalade. My son and his family came over for dinner, and he and I spent a couple of hours after dinner standing in the kitchen cutting up the fruit and taking out the seeds (at least you don't have to peel them!). What a job! But it did make the marmalade making easier, as I didn't have to scoop out the seeds from the boiling marmalade while it was cooking..

The recipe said one cup of sugar per one cup of fruit - as I said it is a very bitter fruit - but I put one cup less, and it turned out sweetish, but not too sweet, and with a slight bitter bite. I also added a couple of green apples - the extra pectin from the apples helps with the setting.

So here is a little mosaic - don't you think the colour of the marmalade is glorious in the afternoon light streaming through my kitchen window. In the picture on the top right, you can see the recipe book.

And below is a texture version - Of course I had to photograph the fruit in this cue little bucket before I did anything else with them.

I wanted to show you the before and after - I used the before image on the left (natural light straight out of camera) to process with texture (on the right) for Kim's latest - Day 64 of her Beyond Layer's e-course.
I used her "Jay" texture twice - one at "multiply" at 100% and once at "vivid light" 54%.

I have never used "vivid light" before and rather like the effect. It adds an extra glow. What do you think?

I think this is my favourite of the set - The cumquats ready to be cooked, taken in morning light on my patio - I like the lovely early morning glow and the dappled shade coming through the trees.

The earliest fruits and vegetables were introduced into Australia by Governor Phillip who, along with the First Fleet in 1788, brought the seeds of various fruit trees from Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope. Early records show that from the start of settlements, the establishment of fruit trees was a priority. Some 200 fruit trees were brought from England on the ship "Gorgon', a ship in the Third Fleet.

Here is the recipe -
Old Government House Cumquat Marmalade 
- from the National Trust of Australia, New South Wales

Cumquats, water, sugar
Wash the fruit well and slice finely, removing the seeds (I just cut each fruit into quarters of sixths)
Breley cover fruit with water and leave to soak overnight. In the morning bring to boil and cook till tender.
(I also added 2 green apples, peeled and sliced thinly)
Add 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of fruit stirring til sugar is dissolved.  
(I had 9 cups of fruit and used 8 cups of sugar)
Boil rapidly. Test with a small quantity of marmalade on a saucer to test for setting.
Bottle in sterile jars and cover immediately.
Enjoy!

Making jams and preserves is a family tradition of ours. Do you make jams and preserves?
Have you tried cumquats?

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House - to see the work of Mary and other wonderful contributors from across the world, please click on the link - here - Mosaic Monday

You might also like - click on the link here - Spring jam making