Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

foxgloves said:

P.S I love doing a bit of foraging....often for making hedgerow jelly. I'd like some elderberries this year for making elderberry vinegar. I like a dash of that in stews & it's good for sore throats too.
F

Our hedgerow mix gets labelled "Jumbleberry" except at Christmas, when it is "Jingleberry", sold to raise funds for one of our local charities.   People seem to like it.

There are several ways to bottle fruit but I think the easiest is to put the clean jars, tightly packed with fruit, then topped with thin or light syrup* and put on a sheet that can catch spills. Tops on but not screwed down tight, warm the oven to 160 from cold, leave for 20 minutes until when you look, you can see the syrup slowly bubbling to the surface (small jars will overspill). Then I remove the whole tray, wipe the jars with a damp cloth, tighten the lids and put them in a cluster upside down to slowly cool. (My Mum used to use her pressure cooker - I will check with her what she did and for how long when we speak later)

Any that don't seal with the lid popped in need either reheating or freezing or using. Just wipe them down to remove any residual stickiness and store them (right way up). I have never found a way to stop the fruit rising, leaving a 2cm syrup well at the bottom.

Before I cooled them upside down the top layer of fruit was rarely in the syrup and sometimes the jars would fail but not since cooling upside down, which an Italian Nonna on the internet taught me, when cooking and storing chopped tomatoes and passata. I prefer these jars (just awaiting another dozen) as I know I can get into them. I do have one jar of pears in a regular jam jar that is four years old that I can't get into (the syrup seal is too good, knives, hot water, oven, all failed!). Clip top ones also work but I write off too many seals as the combination of baked on syrup and sealed rubber/silicon is semi-permanent

Two things, the syrup is slightly less than 1:1 (as a beekeeper) and the buon-a-petitti thread is hilarious but very good - I skip the skin and pip removal and I use hot jars, straight from the oven but I still cool them upside down as it makes sure the seal is good

foxgloves

Thanks so much for that comprehensive information, @Suffolk_lass. I might try bottling some of our pears when they are ready. I've done pickled pears (in a sweetened vinegar) which are lovely with cheese & cold meats, & have also poached them in a light sugar syrup for freezing. I think bottled pears would be useful for dessert though winter topped with skyr. I only knew of the method where the filled jars are boiled in a big pan of water while standing on a clean folded tea-towel. My sugar thermometer does have a setting for bottling, if I remember rightly.
F x

Suffolk_lass

Impressed by Co-op bank who texted me to say we would enter our agreed overdraft and pay interest yesterday. I don't know why the Barclaycard was 6 days earlier than normal but I was able to move some reserves from the sad and depleted EF that sits behind that current account (for TTs!) so all OK. I am literally counting the days until the RS matures this weekend.

That said, I splashed out on a bunch of flowers to be delivered to my Sis on Friday, in time for her birthday on Saturday, and posted her card yesterday, so I don't forget

CRANKY40

I love watching buon-a-petitti. Gina is everyone's ideal Nonna. Even when I'm not going to make what is shown it's worth watching. 

Suffolk_lass

I completely agree. She is very funny and I mentally listen with an Italian accent, which means I can usually understand her! Some great insights and her recipe tips are good, traditional Italian cooking for a family.

Here in S'lass-land it is still all focus on produce processing. Raspberries frozen until I have time to bottle some. No courgettes today as my patch has paused. Two deep 1/2 sized gastronorm pans of Victoria plums and cooking apples. I have four bags of blackberries in different places that I intend amalgamating and will bottle some with apples I think. Some of the apples need attention as they are windfalls (actually more like stressed tree-falls) with bruises that need processing or composting.

I read the electricity meter and put it in yesterday. Our usage is an average of £60.5n for each of the last two months on our fixed tariff. I will keep looking for savings.

I am washing all our clothes on a cold wash unless there is a stubborn stain in something - with half the recommended detergent and everything is fine. Only towels and sheets with any heat and that is on the overnight tariff. I tumble dry for ten minutes if it isn't going on the line outside to lift out creases and no longer ironing. Hung on hangers on a pulley rail in the (oil) boiler cupboard. The boiler is only heating water for tepid showers as I wash myself in cold water too. I am catching cold water in the kitchen from hand washing (the yellow after tomato picking - all up my arms - so itchy!!) and watering pots outside, including herbs. Runner beans have been rubbish so far.

We really need to cut stuff down while there is still a bit of time for new growth or there will be no flowers next year. 

Lots of apples, I wish I had a better juicer. 

No spending in shops at the moment except I have ordered some new vest tops as mine look worn out (not helped by a navy one getting laundry bleach on the front it looks tie-dyed pink!). No groceries but I do want a lettuce

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

I have been struggling since mid July to catch up on some much loved diaries on here. SO today I am giving myself permission not to. I do notice KC is missing at the moment and if she sees this, she is very much on my thoughts x

I'm just catching up on a few diaries, and found this just now - that's really sweet, Suffolk Lass, thank you!  I described myself as "just about convalescent" today, to my niece-in-law on whatsapp, I still had a sleep today, which I didn't yesterday, but I'm definitely a bit better than I was.  

Loving what you wrote on bottling - I'd manage to do that if I wasn't ill, convalescent, for sure.

Suffolk_lass

Good to see you @Karmacat - please take your time convalescing. One of my friends has long covid and is really struggling. DS has taken my advice and although he is back at work in a parcel van, he has told them he is not up to a 12 mile walked route this week and next. He is picking up but it is still only just over a fortnight since he developed it.

I omitted to hear the timer when I was bottling apples yesterday and a major cleaning exercise of our oven has been undertaken. The apples still look fine and the clip top jar (because that is what I had, with new ones not yet delivered) is ready to be dipped in hot water to get the last external stickiness off. I should add that to my description - set a timer on your phone as well as on the cooker!

In the dead patch at the moment and the matured RS has yet to arrive in the destination account. I am off to check the BS to see if they have actioned the closure (due yesterday)

MissRikkiC

Loving reading and catching up @SL! I’d love to do some bottling although I don’t think I’ll have enough. 

Where were you watching the Italian Nonna? I’m so keen for something new to catch/listen to. 

Suffolk_lass

MissRikkiC said:

Loving reading and catching up @SL! I’d love to do some bottling although I don’t think I’ll have enough. 

Where were you watching the Italian Nonna? I’m so keen for something new to catch/listen to. 

Here is the link to her canning tomatoes post but she has a whole channel and she's great (but do listen with an Italian accent)

Suffolk_lass

I was casting around for something to watch when we sat down too late to start watching dramas last night and caught a meat-free Jamie Oliver clip in India where he watched them pickle vegetables in a spice and salt mix with sunflower oil - I might have to try some bottled veg like this. I was thinking carrots, courgettes and either broccoli or cauliflower and maybe some kale if the pigeons leave any, and some herbs maybe. I'm a bit short of jars at the moment - if you wanted to, you could bottle reduce fruit @MissRikkiC - it doesn't have to be homegrown.

Still dead financially and both Jazz cars are in the garage for MOT & Service, so a late stat for me on here today. I will ask DH to pay from the other house account. He thinks there is a couple of thousand of "our" money in there with the tax and house maintenance pots