The Preserver's Year 16 January 2009 at 8:21AM edited 7 July 2015 at 4:34PM in Old Style MoneySaving 1.7K replies 229.7K views

boazu

Ahead of you I've made 8 jars of rhubarb and ginger jam, 6 jars of Military pickle, 5 jars of curried rhubarb chutney, 5 jars of marrow (courgette) chutney and have lots of dehydrated home grown produce in jars in my store. Waiting for the garden plums and damsons to be fully ripe for more jams and chutney and have nearly enough ripe tomatoes from the greenhouse and plot to do a batch of tomato chutney.  Love, love, love this time of year.

Valli

I've got Damson envy.  I have made blackcurrant jam and I have given one jar to my NDN and have received a jar of pickled beetroot in return.
Military pickle sounds interesting.

PipneyJane

@boazu, what is Military Pickle?  Please share the recipe, if you can.

I'm currently waiting patiently for the rosehips to ripen on the old-fashioned rose in our front garden.  (I think what we have is an example of the root stock taking over.)  It's quite heavily laden and the rosehips are nearly all deep red now.  Just a few more days and I'll make rosehip jelly for the first time in 3 or 4 years.  (I don't make it every year - we don't go through jams or jellies that fast.)

- Pip 

boazu

It's very similar top Picalilli but hotter

Military Pickle (makes 5 jars)

1lb marrow/courgette
1lb cauliflower
1lb sliced runner beans
1lb onions
7 chillies
1lb demerara sugar 
1oz turmeric powder
1oz ground ginger
4oz plain flour
4 pints malt vinegar

Cut all the veg into small pieces and cover with salt, leave to stand overnight.  Drain rinse well and put into a large pan, add the vinegar and boil 5minutes.  Add the sugar and chillies, mix the flour and spices to a smooth paste with a little vinegar and add while boiling.  Boil for 30 minutes stirring often to prevent burning.  Bottle when cold.

I used granulated sugar because demerara is hard to get hold of and mine tastes fine.

Wraithlady

I have started rather earlier than usual as I got given a carrier-bag full of plums by my next-door neighbour. A friend of hers had a tree, and one of the branches had blown down.

So, I now have 11 jars of jam, and 2 boxes of stewed plums in the freezer. I may have to make bramble jelly as well, we've been picking since the beginning of July and we must have over 2 lbs in the freezer, the same in raspberries and about 1 lb of blueberries (just started to  ripen last week or so). And it looks like the damson tree has got over the dreaded plum pocket disease and we should (touch wood) have a good crop this year - Covid 19 also means we'll be at home when they ripen this year, we're usually away but it got cancelled. I have a week off at the end of August, looks like I'll be making jam for a lot of it.

MIL has also offered us the rosehips from her large climbing rose bush - so rose hip syrup may well have to be added to the list! 
Whatever winter brings, we will have plenty of jam.

PipneyJane

boazu said:

It's very similar top Picalilli but hotter

Military Pickle (makes 5 jars)

1lb marrow/courgette
1lb cauliflower
1lb sliced runner beans
1lb onions
7 chillies
1lb demerara sugar 
1oz turmeric powder
1oz ground ginger
4oz plain flour
4 pints malt vinegar

Cut all the veg into small pieces and cover with salt, leave to stand overnight.  Drain rinse well and put into a large pan, add the vinegar and boil 5minutes.  Add the sugar and chillies, mix the flour and spices to a smooth paste with a little vinegar and add while boiling.  Boil for 30 minutes stirring often to prevent burning.  Bottle when cold.

I used granulated sugar because demerara is hard to get hold of and mine tastes fine.

Thanks @boazu.  I've added it to my recipe file.  Ironically, demerara sugar was the only type I could find in L!dl yesterday.  (I was after soft, dark muscovardo.)

Wraithlady said:

MIL has also offered us the rosehips from her large climbing rose bush - so rose hip syrup may well have to be added to the list! 

Do you have a reliable Rosehip Syrup recipe that you could share, @Wraithlady?  My roses are heaving with hips.  While my plan is to make rosehip jelly, the last batch I made lasted us for years.  (We don't eat a lot of jam.)  An alternative would be useful.

- Pip

Wraithlady

PipneyJane said:

Wraithlady said:

MIL has also offered us the rosehips from her large climbing rose bush - so rose hip syrup may well have to be added to the list! 

Do you have a reliable Rosehip Syrup recipe that you could share, @Wraithlady?  My roses are heaving with hips.  While my plan is to make rosehip jelly, the last batch I made lasted us for years.  (We don't eat a lot of jam.)  An alternative would be useful.

- Pip

Yes, sure.
The one I use is the River Cottage one:
1 kg rosehips
1.25 - 1.5 litres water
500g sugar (approximately)
(If you have more or less rosehips, just adjust accordingly)
Rinse and chop the rosehips, either by hand or in a food processor
Put in a pan with the water and bring to boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Mash the pulp with a potato masher or a wooden spoon (just mildly, you don't need it pureeing!) then strain through a jelly bag or muslin cloth, leaving for a good few hours or overnight.
(Hugh then strains it again, I don't bother)
For each 500ml of juice, add 350g sugar and heat slowly in a pan until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to boil and boil for 3-4 minutes (if it's too thin, let it boil for longer, it should be fairly, well, syrupy)
Pour into sterilised bottles and refrigerate once opened.

there are recipes which require you to re-boil the pulp and then combine the two strainings but unless you're trying to maximise output, I've never bothered with.

threepenny_bit

Lovely to find this thread again - totally forgot about it the last few years. I am in Western Canada and our growing season is short and late! I have picked my rhubarb over the last 4 weeks and made 12 jars of rhubarb chutney; one had more curry powder than the other. Have also stewed 8lb rhubarb to use during the winter. I have one small picking left and wondered about making rhubarb and ginger jam but never made it before so will search out a good recipe. I have jostaberry bushes which are similar to black currants - just a little larger berry and a cross breed to make them more hardy for our weather. I usually make jam with these and they will be another couple of weeks till harvestable. My gooseberry is only 3 years old and just starting to produce but they are a pink gooseberry and much sweeter than the ones I had in the UK; not enough for any jam. I wish we had wild brambles but they dont seem to grow here and the imported ones have no flavour and not enough pips

threepenny_bit

boazu said:

Ahead of you I've made 8 jars of rhubarb and ginger jam, 

Do you have a no fail rhubarb and ginger jam recipe that you would share? I have a little rhubarb left in the garden and dont want to waste it on a mediocre recipe

PositiveBalance

If it's any help @threepenny_bit, I just made 16 jars of rhubarb and ginger jam using this recipe:  https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/rhubarb-ginger-jam and it is being very well received.

Reports are that it is a well-balanced recipe and that you can taste both the rhubarb and the ginger but that neither overpowers the other