What are you preserving today?

Beautyberries, and no, the color hasnt been doctored they really are that color!

pity they dont keep it when turned into jelly or in my case, syrup

Callycarpa Americana, I grow them too

Today I made mango chutney and 6 liters of blueberry jam and a liter of gherkins - the way the cucumber vines are fruiting, this is the first of many many jars of gherkins

Wow - that colour is quite something. I assume they could be used to dye fabric / yarn too. That would be a magical colour for a hat or similar!

Mrs C

Just made a lot of blackberry jam. My Mum would be so pleased with me

I've made some "tidy the food cupboard chutney" - it smelled and tasted allright, hopefully it will mature well!

Today I processed tomatoes, got a 3 liters of sauce from the first crop - looks like another hundred to come

lucky you, badger! tomato sauce is part of my staples.

I'm jealous - tomtoes this year were a disaster (my fault), but the figs are fantastic (nothing to do with me!) so tonight is fig jam time...

I should be doing something creative with all the pears I've got, but they're so delicious I keep eating them....

Made another lot of mustard pickle for OH, think I have run out of space to store it now.

Going to pickle some of the small onions I think as I have rather a lot.

Today I found myself up to my nipples in peaches - a friend had bought a bushel of them (without knowing how much a bushel was... )

I got her surplus, so made Peach and Orange marmalade

How much is a bushel??

15 kilos or 8 gallons...

I've just almost finished processing 30 lbs of Damsons. I've made wine, gin, and puree which is being frozen, plus damson ice cream which is DIVINE!

I'm starting on the first of the apples now - have been dealing with windfalls for a couple of weeks, just for pies etc, but the jackdaws are going mad on the Bramley tree out there so will have to pick some of the best early whilst they're still still (and send OH out with the air rifle to deal with the pesky things).

Blackberries too, but not a good year for them in our neck of the woods.

peaches and raspberries go well together in a kind of peach melba jam. if somewhat sweet to my taste. I know there are more recipes in my books so say if you need more ideas.

Pears in the dehydrator, ducks and bacon in the smoker, guanciale in the drycure box, culatello resting in wine and garlic.

Just damson gin ongoing here... Second batch about to be sorted.

Mrs C

MrsC wrote:Wow - that colour is quite something. I assume they could be used to dye fabric / yarn too. That would be a magical colour for a hat or similar!

Mrs C

I just wish the color would stay but as soon as it heats up it goes a dull pinkish

Not much preserved lately but a couple of pear trees are calling to me. They are a southern pear, very CRISP and watery with an OK pear taste.

NOT a favorite to be honest but have a recipe for pear butter that looks tasty.

And have you heard? Scientists have now discovered butter is good for you. What planet do they live on that they didn't know that already???

[quote="GB"]Not much preserved lately but a couple of pear trees are calling to me. They are a southern pear, very CRISP and watery with an OK pear taste.
quote]

Have you tried Korean Pears? (Asian Pears) They're fab. Had them fresh when I was in Korea. About the size of a Grapefruit, with a very firm fruit. Nice pear/apple flavor. Haven't tried cooking them. Had brought seeds home with me, but don't think they're still viable after 10 years in a house temp cabinet, lol. Would love to look them up again should I ever get a proper orchard, sigh...

[quote="mr_sfstk8d"]

GB wrote:Not much preserved lately but a couple of pear trees are calling to me. They are a southern pear, very CRISP and watery with an OK pear taste.
quote]

Have you tried Korean Pears? (Asian Pears) They're fab. Had them fresh when I was in Korea. About the size of a Grapefruit, with a very firm fruit. Nice pear/apple flavor. Haven't tried cooking them. Had brought seeds home with me, but don't think they're still viable after 10 years in a house temp cabinet, lol. Would love to look them up again should I ever get a proper orchard, sigh...

http://www.ediblelandscaping.com/buyPlants.php This lot have Asian Pears and they do sound nice.

The Southern Pear was the only one resistant to blight for decades but because they are NOT the best pear they seem to have died out now They only hang on here and there, like the old apples do, waiting to be rediscovered adn saved.

So, I shall be trying to save these two I have found. They are beautiful trees, flowers in spring and heaps of fruit in late summer and even if its not super fruit, its still something nice to have for hte pigs if for no other reason

Ooh, that's funny - it's exactly a year to the day since GB wrote the last post on this thread.

Well, I'm just having a sit down, being a bit stiffnakey. Trying desperately to deal with the cooking apples off of our very elderly tree. It's a soft apple that doesn't keep at all well, but I love the flavour. I had the tree identified by the RHS, who reckoned it is an old variety called Stirling Castle. The fruit tends to disintegrate in bottling, and I'm very short of freezer space, so most of the crop is being dehydrated. Just finished a full load, which will go on tonight, to take advantage of cheap rate electricity. I've only had the dehydrator about 6 months, so this is all quite new to me. My dried chillies last year (which I did in the oven) were so successful, I decided that it would be worth the expense of buying the dehydrator. So far I've dried more chillies, bay leaves, courgettes, apples, pears, strawberries and the good bits I cut off the onions that the slugs got at. Oh, and liver for dog treats.

I have also been bottling the fruit from a much newer, cordon cooking apple tree, Annie Elizabeth. That is a solid, keeping fruit, so I've just been processing the windfalls so far. Bit of an experiment - since the man has been diagnosed with diabetes, I am not using a sugar syrup as I usually do for fruit bottling. My book says you can bottle in water, but with some loss of flavour, so I have decided to try using a sweetner instead of sugar. I've added some lemon juice just to make sure the acidity is good. I don't love the idea of using sweetners, and mostly try not to use them, but the apples are much too tart to eat without.

This is what I am not preserving - a neighbour gave me a bag of small plums. I prepared them, and put them in a pan with a little water and sugar on a low gas while University Challenge was starting. I didn't bother to put the timer on (big mistake), thinking I would smell them cooking and remember to turn them off.
I didn't even smell them burning...
The pan took 24 hours soaking and scrubbing to get clean again. I was cross with myself for wasting plums, sugar and gas - I'll time them next time!!

Dandelion wrote:This is what I am not preserving - a neighbour gave me a bag of small plums. I prepared them, and put them in a pan with a little water and sugar on a low gas while University Challenge was starting. I didn't bother to put the timer on (big mistake), thinking I would smell them cooking and remember to turn them off.
I didn't even smell them burning...
The pan took 24 hours soaking and scrubbing to get clean again. I was cross with myself for wasting plums, sugar and gas - I'll time them next time!!

I shouldnt laugh but OMG that was funny! The last thing I burnt that bad was my stove top steamer. Burnt it black and managed to flavor the steamed veggies with burnt taste too so even though they were not actually burnt, they sure did taste it!

And I havnt managed to preserve a thing this year so far even my palm fruits have gone to the birds.

Where does the time go???

Dandelion wrote:This is what I am not preserving - a neighbour gave me a bag of small plums. I prepared them, and put them in a pan with a little water and sugar on a low gas while University Challenge was starting. I didn't bother to put the timer on (big mistake), thinking I would smell them cooking and remember to turn them off.
I didn't even smell them burning...
The pan took 24 hours soaking and scrubbing to get clean again. I was cross with myself for wasting plums, sugar and gas - I'll time them next time!!

Oh no! It reminds me of the very first time I made jam - 1lb plums, 1lb sugar. How do I know when it's ready, I asked my mum. Well, she said, you can tell when it boils - it looks like jam. I boiled and boiled it, patiently. Didn't really know but thought it must be about done, and put it in a jar. 1lb plums and 1lb sugar fitted in a 1lb jar - when it was cool, I bent the knife trying to get it out the pot!

By the way, Dandelion, unless your pans are aluminium, boiling up water with plenty of bicarbonate of soda helps enormously for badly burned pans. Then leave it to soak and cool - the longer the better. It's better on things that have had fat in, but does work on burnt sugar too. It just takes a bit more perseverance.

freebird wrote:
Oh no! It reminds me of the very first time I made jam - 1lb plums, 1lb sugar. How do I know when it's ready, I asked my mum. Well, she said, you can tell when it boils - it looks like jam. I boiled and boiled it, patiently. Didn't really know but thought it must be about done, and put it in a jar. 1lb plums and 1lb sugar fitted in a 1lb jar - when it was cool, I bent the knife trying to get it out the pot!

By the way, Dandelion, unless your pans are aluminium, boiling up water with plenty of bicarbonate of soda helps enormously for badly burned pans. Then leave it to soak and cool - the longer the better. It's better on things that have had fat in, but does work on burnt sugar too. It just takes a bit more perseverance.

It always makes you feel better when you know that other people have done similar things!
I soaked the pan with biological washing liquid overnight, which made no difference at all. I then soaked it with biological washing powder, which did the job nicely. Maybe there is bi carb in the washing powder? Will try that next time...

Grapes, aka homemade raisins (or are they sultanas?). Matters not. They are utterly and absolutely delicious. Why the bother? I always used to buy large raisins for my Christmas cake. Don't know what sort they were, but they were gorgeous - tasted almost of elderflower. Can't get them anywhere. So when I saw some large seeded grapes in the market (the sort that taste of elderflower), decided to have a go at making my own. Fiddly getting the seeds out, and so far they've taken 35 hours in the dehydrator. In terms of cost, probably not worth it, but for something special they really are sooo gooood. Looking forward to making the cake next week.