The Preserver's Year

floss2

I treated myself to a shiny new Tala preserving pan yesterday....£20 from Wilko

Will be picking most of my allotment blackcurrants today (in the rain!) - some destined for gin and some for jelly. I've also got the first 250g of my rasps in the freezer, so I will jam those when they are all picked.

I noticed yesterday that the chili jelly stock is getting low (DH eats it on peanut butter - bleagh!) so I need to pick up some Bramleys and make some more, I also want to pick up a tin of Mamade to make the whisky marmalade my brothers receive at Christmas.

I have also finished the last jar of sloe jelly from last year - sloes this year are jelly-bound, hence the blackcurrant gin - which is great with meats & in gravy instead of redcurrant jelly. I want to try elderberry & hawthorn jellies too this year, along with good old mint and rosemary jellies.

I will wait & see how overrun we become with BN squashes, courgettes & marrows before making much more chutney - I have a sneaky feeling we will have a full chutney shelf come the autumn :rotfl:

Possession

I MUST make gooseberry jam today, a friend gave me a big tub of gooseberries at the weekend. Can't bear them myself but am making hampers again for this Xmas and that will do nicely.
Floss2, does the Mamade marmalade keep well till Xmas? I made that last year with a slug of brandy and my dad said it was the best marmalade he'd ever tasted so it seems a good idea to make some more! I think I made it in November last year though.

[Deleted User]

Living_proof wrote: »

I have had a casualty in halved plum tomatoes - obviously I didn't dry them long enough and they went mouldy quite quickly in the jar.

I dehydrate according to the recommended temperature wrt humidity and I do that during the day. I then always leave the excalibur running overnight to finish off on the lowest setting and everything I have dried in the excalibur this way has been successful. I did a couple of things when I first got it that didn`t keep properly but the all night finishing off did the trick. It is also in a room with a humidity sensor extract otherwise the moist air would just be going round and round

Half my blackberries are red and there are a lot of them which will ripen all at once. I will freeze as much as I can but need to get my backside in gear re bottling as well. I opened a jar of hm passata this week for a lasagne and just added part cooked mince. Tbh it was the best lasagne ever and so so easy as most of the prep had gone into the sauce, which was made from roasted tomatoes, garlic, shallots and herbs and processed with a metal mouli. I am hoping to repeat the process this year

JJ the rose petals and jelly look great.

My blackcurrants are still very green fortunately and I am hoping that the blackberries are ready first

I am not making any jam or chutney this year as I have absolutely loads from last year

Sunnyday

A decent batch of rhubarb and ginger jam is now cooling in the kitchen - i added a touch of cinnamon too and it is absolutely gorgeous!

That is one recipe that i will definitely be repeating, i only wish i had sterilised more jars as the last bit would not fit in, i have a clean unsealed jar to use first and a couple of small tupperware pots too

I doubt that i will do chutney either this year as i still have quite a few jars left from last year too, if we do get a lot of cougettes then i may do a single batch but i'm not planning any.

SD

floss2

Possession wrote: »

...Floss2, does the Mamade marmalade keep well till Xmas? ...

Oh yes, and longer!

PipneyJane

floss2 wrote: »

I treated myself to a shiny new Tala preserving pan yesterday....£20 from Wilko

Will be picking most of my allotment blackcurrants today (in the rain!) - some destined for gin and some for jelly. I've also got the first 250g of my rasps in the freezer, so I will jam those when they are all picked.

I noticed yesterday that the chili jelly stock is getting low (DH eats it on peanut butter - bleagh!) so I need to pick up some Bramleys and make some more, I also want to pick up a tin of Mamade to make the whisky marmalade my brothers receive at Christmas.

I have also finished the last jar of sloe jelly from last year - sloes this year are jelly-bound, hence the blackcurrant gin - which is great with meats & in gravy instead of redcurrant jelly. I want to try elderberry & hawthorn jellies too this year, along with good old mint and rosemary jellies.

I will wait & see how overrun we become with BN squashes, courgettes & marrows before making much more chutney - I have a sneaky feeling we will have a full chutney shelf come the autumn :rotfl:

Sloe Jelly? Please tell me more! Last year, I was given 3kg of sloes and 5kg of crab apples. The sloes all went into sloe gin then, after macerating for 4 months, were stripped of their flesh and made into sloe-gin truffles (recipe here from Sloe.biz). I think we ended up with 450g of flesh - insanely, I made it all into truffles in one batch. Kept having to send DH out for more chocolate.

The crab apples became crab apple jelly and crab apple chilli cheese (both from the Cottage Smallholder.) The chilli cheese is almost gone, and I gave away a fair number of jars of the jelly, but still have far too many in stock for my liking. It's worth it, though, for the chilli cheese.

floss2

PipneyJane wrote: »

Sloe Jelly? Please tell me more! .....

Here's the recipe - I've started off blackcurrant gin for this year so all the sloes will be jellied, as it's so useful! The first time I made it was because we had picked bags of sloes, and had already started plenty of gin.

We tend to put ginned sloes into sherry for another 3-6 months, to get more flavour from them whereas ginned damsons get stored in jars and used to make grown-ups Black Forest Gateau with the chocolate log at Christmas, or spooned over good vanilla ice cream :drool:

Forgot to add, I will be making cider & sage jelly too

Possession

floss2 wrote: »

Oh yes, and longer!

Excellent, I'll have a look round for where it's cheapest. I'd like to get my hands on the lemon Mamade but so far have only found the orange.

jumblejack

Today's bargains in Wilkos:

Making jellies n jams?



Wilkinson's bargain no.1 :T



Wilkinson's bargain no.2 :T

GreenFairy

I have a couple of those jelly bags and find them great. They get whacked into the washing machine after use and come out perfect.