Homemade jam is making a comeback as recession-hit Britons turn their hand to creating the sweet treat.

While jam-making has long been the preserve of organisations such as the Women’s Institute, it has recently soared in popularity. More than 8,500 electrical jam producing machines have been sold by home appliance firm Lakeland this year as Britons try to save their pennies.

A huge increase in the number of people growing their fruit and vegetables at home had ddedto the boom. The most popular jams are strawberry and raspberry. The Daily Express reported yesterday that one-in-eight women in their 20s had turned to growing produce to save money. But Lakeland spokeswoman Wendy Miranda said that men were also buying the £88 jam-making machines.

They had been inspired, she added, by television programmes like River Cottage, in which viewers followed the adventures of chef Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall as a smallholder.

Christine Bracken, president of the Women’s Institute in Kendal, Cumbria said “There is a renewed interest in jam-making and home baking. It is financial common sense and it also tastes much better.”