bottling fruit

nanokitten

If you are gonna freeze the plums I'd take the stones out first as this will save alot of faffing. You could also do a big batch of crumbles (eg in foil containers) or pies and freeze them. Personally I'd make jam (plum jam is delicious), bake lots for puddings whilst they are fresh (bit of sugar or honey and a knob of butter, cover with tin foil and bake, serve with cheap icecream, yummy and then eat the apples when the plums /damsons are gone.
I'd stay away from bottling unless you are realy keen. the important thing is to use a pressure cooker as it's only possible to kill botulism spores under high temperature AND pressure. There are plenty of modern books on the subject, try the library, mine is ace.

Gigervamp

The only thing I can add that hasn't already been said is the reason for wiping the apple slices with lemon juice is to stop them going brown. However, you don't need to wipe each slice individually. I put some water and lemon juice in a bowl and put the apple slices/chunks into that, then drain.

rocketone

helyg -

I know apples normally store well wrapped in paper, but mine are not yet ripe and loads of nearly ripe apples are getting mouldy spots that drill right into the apple until it gets so ill it just drops off the tree. These are so nearly ripe that they are worth preserving after cutting off the mouldy bits.

Also, very annoyingly, my huge apple crop is rapidly diminishing to nothing as all those mouldy apples fall off the tree and I'm being left with very few left on the trees to ripen fully. I think it is the weather conditions encouraging mould. Spuds and tomatoes are already completely wrecked with it.

thriftlady

I have no freezer space. My thirty year old chest freezer had a tantrum when I gave it it's once in two years clean and it stopped working. My daughter then gave me a newish little under the counter freezer from her old micro flat with it's extra micro kitchen that was so small it made boiling an egg a challenge.

In my then research into the possibilities of buying a new chest freezer I discovered just how expensive ancient freezers are because they gobble electricity voraciously. I had already noticed mine was not only on all the time, but huge chunks of ice formed on the outside wall at the bottom as well as creeping out of the top and preventing the lid from being closed. It was obviously trying it's best to heat up the entire planet at my expense.

Although the precious little thing recovered from it's tantrum when the electric motor eventually dried out and it started working again, it was too late. There was no way I was going to pay about £400 a year in electricity to keep it going when all the modern freezers talk about annual costs of about £25. Anyway, I am so short of money I can't afford even the most basic electricity bill at present. So, no silly extravagances like ancient power guzzling, manic, hyperactive freezers then.

And, when you have an income which is so low it is impossible to make ends meet anyway, you soon learn a simple rule of basic economics which is, if you can survive without it now, then don't spend money buying it - whatever it is ! As I already have a very small freezer I cannot justify even thinking of spending anything at all on a larger one unless it pays for itself - which it wont.

I would have frozen all this fruit as I have done in the past, but I thought bottling it was an alternative and it might also preserve taste and texture better too as freezers destroy food over time. They are not what they are cracked up to be ! It also occurred to me that when things are frozen there is a constant ongoing cost of paying for electricity to keep them frozen, but once you have finished the bottling process, there is no further cost at all. Something to bear in mind !

Anyway, many thanks for all the advice, but nobody has really told me the answer to my question. Can you just chuck boiled stuff in sterilised jars just like you do jam. The answer seems to be no. So I did it anyway and wait to see how long it lasts. I don't suppose botulism will be a problem as it is more likely the fruit might ferment instead. We'll see.

I do have loads of Kilner jars as I used to make tons of jam once. In my efforts to make sure they were completely sterilised I made them too hot (something to do with having a lousy permanently overheating oven with almost no temperature control). So when I started plonking boiling fruit into two very large and expensive ones they just shattered . Aaaaaarrrrgh ! Usually that only happens when people don't heat them up and just put hot stuff into cold glass jars. But I think my Kilner jars were so hot the glass was almost melting as I poured the boiling fruit in.

I don't have time at the moment to make jams and chutneys etc, so will just try bottling stuff properly now and stop trying shortcuts as it has all been more hassle than just sticking to the idea of cramming the stuff into bottles and leaving them in the oven to sterilise.


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thriftlady_2

rocketone wrote: »

Anyway, many thanks for all the advice, but nobody has really told me the answer to my question. Can you just chuck boiled stuff in sterilised jars just like you do jam. The answer seems to be no. So I did it anyway and wait to see how long it lasts. I don't suppose botulism will be a problem as it is more likely the fruit might ferment instead. We'll see.

I think you must process the bottles in a boiling water bath after filling. Shame about your freezer space.

Have you looked at American sites about 'canning' which is what they call bottling? It seems to be a more common thing to do there. Try some 'homesteading' blogs.

zarazara

Hi, I'm new to this bu today have bottled some gooseberries and also rhubarb. I brought the rhubarb up to the simmering point too quickly and the sugar is visable in the liquor. The jars have gone "ping" and sealed [kilner rubber seal screw tops] do you think they will be ok?

Barneysmom

Pass me a jar, I'll let you know :cool: I think it'll be great. I'm a bit jealous too, I looked at the rhubarb on the weekend and it was quite expensive and haven't seen goosgogs at all yet this year, maybe to early?

SCFC1961

Hi

We have acquired 3 large Kilner jars today and wondered about using them for bottled fruit.

There's usually a glut of plums and apples in the next few months and we still have last year's jam, stewed fruit in the freezer and our families are fed up of us bringing pies and crumbles to parties etc!

Any recipes would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks

Pink.

Hi SCFC1961,

It's not something I've tried, but this thread may help:

bottling fruit

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

SCFC1961

Thank you:T