The Preserver's Year

foxgloves

23 jars of pear chutney, pear pudding, poached cimmamon pears of which there are 10 containers in freezer, pear muffins, pear cake, pear crumble & now 11 jars of pickled pears. Planning to make pear & orange jam at the weekend. Partner & I eating 2 or 3 fresh pears a day and we STILL have a huge load of them left on our tree. Have also been giving a carrier bag full to anyone who visits. Am now running out of ideas....and will probably have gone off pears by the end of this week! Lovely to have such a big crop though.

missychrissy

I'd try making pear wine. I think there is a sparkling pear wine called Perry but I havn't personally tried it - you could google it.

ChocolateMonkey

missychrissy wrote: »

I set off 5 galls of rosehip sherry 2 days ago. My hands are still very scratched from collecting them. It took me approximately 3 weeks to gather enough and kept having to freeze them but I hope it will be worth it.

3 weeks :eek: I knew i'd need a lot but i've hugely underestimated the amount needed then. I'll make sure I wear some gardening gloves this time as my hands are still recouvering from last time.

On another note, the damon trees I picked months ago have come into fruit again and the fruit is huge, just smaller than a golf ball so I shall go picking friday. :T
I was a bit sad the wild gathering seasons were over but seems not.:D

missychrissy

I used 15 lbs of rosehips to set off 5 galls of rosehip sherry. I picked approx 1lb every time I walked my dog so took a while to collect them all. I just picked off all the stalks and then washed and froze them. I did exactly the same with the 40 lbs of elderberries I collected. They also froze very well and are now fermenting away into 16 galls of elderberry wine. The elderberries just stained my hands, though I did get nettled a few times, but I'm still bearing the scars from collecting the rosehips. I tried wearing rubber gloves but the thorns just tore through them.

I'm taking some homemade wine into work for one of my colleagues tonight. It's amazing how, when people realise that you make your own, they offer you their gluts and of course they get rewarded with the fruits of your labour.

ktpie

I was busy yesterday and made some lemon curd and marrow chutney, took ages to peel and prepare the marrow and I still have another marrow to use. I may try a different recipe for that one, anyone got any ideas?

I have it in my head today that I want to have a go at recreating some sticky onion marmalade the ILs got for us. I'm going to try making a small amount today and see how it goes.

BabyKat

i have a recipe for red onion marmalade if thats any use?

ktpie

BabyKat wrote: »

i have a recipe for red onion marmalade if thats any use?

Yes that would be great, I had a go this morning and it seemed to be going well but I have managed to make onion toffee instead! Too much sugar? Heated too long?

ellemm

ktpie wrote: »

Yes that would be great, I had a go this morning and it seemed to be going well but I have managed to make onion toffee instead! Too much sugar? Heated too long?

Snap !! I have had 2 goes at making this, both disastrous....I gave up :rotfl:

ktpie

ellemm wrote: »

Snap !! I have had 2 goes at making this, both disastrous....I gave up :rotfl:

That makes me feel better! Glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

BabyKat

i will look it out ...i did this the first time its prob over cooked it or left it on too long it has to have some liquid left and be a golden brown colour