Edible gifts!

Right, I was talking to my mum this afternoon and she's started her christmas shopping allready. I informed her it was September and she said "You can't start too early!".

It then dawned on me that I hadn't even thought about it yet She said a good idea is edible gifts, find a food the person likes and make something to do with that. Examples would probably be flavoured vodkas for my friends, fudge/cookies for my sister and mum, jams for my dad etc.

I'm just wondering if anyone else makes edible gifts for christmas/birthdays and what you make.

I've already made bucket loads of chutney with the plums and pears picked in my local park, so guess what every one I know is getting for Xmas.

I've made heaps of jam; cherry, blackberry, plum and today pear (all picked in the park) so some of that will be given as gifts.

Next week I'm planning to pick sloes to make sloe gin, my next door neighbour is particularly partial to that!

I've finished the patchwork top for a lap quilt for my M-I-L, just need to quilt it and I'm making another one for my Great Aunt who is going to be 100 in December!

Oh, and I'll probably get the kids to help me make sweets to give to their mates for Xmas.

Now if my mum could just knit me an iPhone I'd be a happy bunny!

J.

me, my sister and I tend to make food hampers!

The ones i get tend to have Wine, chocolates, and my sister make homemade peanut cracknel, mince pies and then puts in something like socks or a pair of slippers etc

my brother tends to put in jams/pickles/pate etc

I tend to make a cake or truffles or christmas puddings (very boozy ones!)

There's a little traditional sweet shop in town that I like to go to, and was thinking of making lots of bottles of traditional sweet vodkas this year to give as gifts for my friends. Cola Cubes, Pear drops etc :3 (Will defo make a load for me too!!)

Does anyone have a really good jam making tutorial to hand by the way? I'm wanting to try making some now before I start thinking about christmas gifts o_O

ooh i forgot about my sister xmas crackers!
she puts pick and mix in them and a minature alcohol and something like a lip gloss or toy! she then puts a celebrities picture on the front that she think has some funny link to the person its for, like for me it was miss piggy! my sister said i was diva-ish and reminded her of miss piggy - not sure it was that much of a compliment! lol

I`m making Christmas cakes for 2 of my friends. Another doesn`t eat raisins etc so I`ll probably give her some home-made pickles, and some nice cheese.

We've been doing homemade gifts for a while now. Ours usually consist of a mix of jams, jellies, chutneys, biscuits, elderflower cordial, bath bombs, soaps and lotions/salves.

All the fruit etc is either grown in our garden or foraged

I've got 6 litres of elderflower cordial in the freezer and approx 30+ jars of various jams etc ready (been making it since July).

Jam World is pretty good for basic recipes for stuff.

Also, somewhere like the Jam Jar Shop is very good value for jars and equipment

Also, check out your local library for recipe books - I found some really good ones in my library, copied the recipes I wanted and voila!

I've managed to do a big plan of most of the gifts

That jam jar shop is amazing Isochick Getting some decorative jars and swing top bottles for everything to go in. Have made my own labels and found some lovely recipes on that Jam World website as well as BBC good food

I've wittled it down to a few of the easier looking ones:
Picalilli
Apple Chutney
Seedless Apple and Blackberry Jam
Sweet chilli Jam

Those so far anyway as well as making flavoured Gin and Vodka, Truffles and Lebkuchen