The Preserver's Year

Justamum

My neighbour gave me some more beetroot the other day so I've pickled these ones. I also made some seville orange marmalade and some lemon marmalade from frozen fruit.

jennyo

Just planning for this year jam making, although most of the fruit I am going to be using are still just flowers, or in the case of raspberries aren't anything yet.

Getting some jam in ready, I just use granulated, cheapest I have found so far is 2 X 1kg for £1.50 at poundstretcher, any one found it a better price, I do use a lot.

I am also looking for the best price on white wine vinegar, which is what I use for chutney.

Boodle

jennyo wrote: »

Just planning for this year jam making, although most of the fruit I am going to be using are still just flowers, or in the case of raspberries aren't anything yet.

Getting some jam in ready, I just use granulated, cheapest I have found so far is 2 X 1kg for £1.50 at poundstretcher, any one found it a better price, I do use a lot.

I am also looking for the best price on white wine vinegar, which is what I use for chutney.

Hi Jennyo I will be down to Poundstretcher at the weekend, thanks for the pointer. It is frustrating waiting for the first fruits. I know where there are elder trees nearby so will be trying eldflower preserve but nothing before that!

I have discovered that the "thing" which runs down one length of my garden is a flowering currant bush and, although supposedly bland, is edible! So I can't wait to jam-make with those this year instead of them all dropping to the ground unused! Will just have to mix them with a splash of liqueur or vanilla or something to perk up the flavour. I get a lot of the berries though so if it works out, I should be doing alright for gift-giving next Christmas.

DebtFree2012

Going to be reading this thread closely as I would love to make mu own preserves so great place to start - thanks for all the posts. I have a few fruit trees in the garden and we will be going to PYO as often as can whilst other crops take root.

So exciting isn't it!

jennyo

Nearly time to get started, the jars are ready, the sugars ready, just waiting for the first lot of fruit to ripen, the blackcurrants are getting there, another week or so. I've got gooseberries also this year for the first time, so gooseberry jam also.

Justamum

jennyo wrote: »

the blackcurrants are getting there, another week or so.

Mine have barely formed flowers yet, never mind fruit! I've only got one bush, but it produces quite a lot of fruit. I pick and freeze them, then when the bush has finished fruiting I make the jam - usually get about 5 jars, so that's not bad considering.

~GoodLife~

Just finished making 5 1/2 jars of strawberry jam from the strawberries from our allotment. Didnt have a real lemon so used lemon juice from a bottle that you put on pancakes and it came out great!

jennyo

Justamum wrote: »

Mine have barely formed flowers yet, never mind fruit! I've only got one bush, but it produces quite a lot of fruit. I pick and freeze them, then when the bush has finished fruiting I make the jam - usually get about 5 jars, so that's not bad considering.

Mine must be an early fruiting variety, Blackurrant Jam is always made before the end of June, thought I had no chance this year with so little sun. My friend also give me hers but they are usually ready 3rd week in July.

~GoodLife~ wrote: »

Just finished making 5 1/2 jars of strawberry jam from the strawberries from our allotment. Didnt have a real lemon so used lemon juice from a bottle that you put on pancakes and it came out great!

Yum, I love strawberry jam, especially on scones with clotted cream, but I rarely have enough strawberries to make any.

[Deleted User]

my preserving goes far beyond jams and chutneys. Last year was very good for preserving in all ways, bottling, dehydrating, brining, pickling, freezing. Produce from the (small) allotment so far this year is significantly worse.

I still have very large stocks of last years preserves, for which I am grateful, so will not be adding to the chutneys for a start.

So far this year, I have dehydrated several herbs, at 95 degrees to preserve the oils and it is nice to have them tucked away. I am in process of picking and freezing broad beans, I don`t find any difference between blanching and not blanching those, so they just get frozen in bags and they remain nice and loose

First early potatoes are up and eaten or in the fridge. From now on I`ll be dehydrating any spare potatoes, as they were invaluable during winter and there is no faff in trying to keep them in sacks

I have dehydrated lots of large overwintered onions as they would not have kept well due to the bad weather. Garlics are lifted and drying upside down but I am ready to slice and dehydrate if necessary, those I did last year have been amazing. All the dehydrated veg are so easy to use in casseroles and soups

Brined green beans are good but I shall freeze as long as I have freezer space. Cut and frozen french beans were more useful than runner deans

Salted lemons are amazing, so worth doing

Sauerkraut is also amazing and keeping so well. I do use a special crock for making it

That is the state of play so far. I have a large potential crop of tomatoes, blackcurrant, blueberries and blackberries so will get my kilner jars out from under the stairs in a few more weeks. I intend to bottle as much as I can.

Justamum

kittie wrote: »

First early potatoes are up and eaten or in the fridge. From now on I`ll be dehydrating any spare potatoes, as they were invaluable during winter and there is no faff in trying to keep them in sacks

I've never heard of dehydrating potatoes before - unless you count Smash (which I don't :rotfl:) Do you do them in large chunks? Do they need reconstituting before cooking, and are you limited in their use - ie just mash?

It sounds like a dehydrater is a useful piece of equipment to have.

kittie wrote: »

Salted lemons are amazing, so worth doing

Can you only use them in savoury dishes afterwards?

I'm so impressed with all these things you are doing