Get a grip woman!

greent

Suffolk_lass said:

greent said:

Love the pantry - my idea of heaven! Although all the home preserving is fab,  my favourite thing in there is the ginger cake - they are my guilty secret and I can't buy them very often as I can easily eat a whole one in one go.... 😋 ☺

How do you like them? we have them - a chunk with a cup of tea, warmed with custard or warmed with ice cream as a dessert!!

Hunks ripped off the loaf and devoured! I have no finesse when it comes to McV ginger cake 🤣🤣

cashlink

Have pantry envy now, I have 2 shelves in cupboard in spare room for staring extra tins, etc.
learning from you all about planning for the coming months and so grateful to be on this thread.
Thank you!!

Suffolk_lass

greent said:

Suffolk_lass said:

greent said:

Love the pantry - my idea of heaven! Although all the home preserving is fab,  my favourite thing in there is the ginger cake - they are my guilty secret and I can't buy them very often as I can easily eat a whole one in one go.... 😋 ☺

How do you like them? we have them - a chunk with a cup of tea, warmed with custard or warmed with ice cream as a dessert!!

Hunks ripped off the loaf and devoured! I have no finesse when it comes to McV ginger cake 🤣🤣

Still chuckling at this. By the way, ginger nuts instead of wafers with vanilla ice cream. Just saying...

cashlink said:

Have pantry envy now, I have 2 shelves in cupboard in spare room for staring extra tins, etc.
learning from you all about planning for the coming months and so grateful to be on this thread.
Thank you!!

Hello @cashlink, nice to see you. We are probably in the wrong place now we are debt free but I was persuaded that as an example of continuing to be sensible with money is a good thing, I continue to post. Now that the gang are joining in with winter prep and money saving it helps us all. I have just been reading @foxgloves' winter prep list and I have envy there. 

My stockpile of tins is all SM offers - I buy when they are on offer and if we run out, I do something else and we do without. I never pay full price for my limited number of brand things (moisturiser, coffee, deodorant, shower gloop) but I do buy them when on offer. 6 at a time if the shelf has room

themadvix

McV ginger cake is a special camping dessert for us - with a tin of Ambrosia custard (Oooh, so that's another thing to look forward to about our Devon trip in October!). Although I do have a recipe to make a very good imitation of it - problem is, it makes the house smell amazing, but you have to (try to) wait until the next day to eat it as it goes gooey overnight. 

What's the orange-looking bottled fruit? Peaches? I love how accomplished bottling fruit made me feel - I want to branch out now! 😂 No space to store it, but so much fun!

Suffolk_lass

themadvix said:

McV ginger cake is a special camping dessert for us - with a tin of Ambrosia custard (Oooh, so that's another thing to look forward to about our Devon trip in October!). Although I do have a recipe to make a very good imitation of it - problem is, it makes the house smell amazing, but you have to (try to) wait until the next day to eat it as it goes gooey overnight. 

What's the orange-looking bottled fruit? Peaches? I love how accomplished bottling fruit made me feel - I want to branch out now! 😂 No space to store it, but so much fun!

I think the orange fruit is the plums. The green is definitely green gages. We opened that big jar of gages on the right with the plastic insert to keep the fruit submerged last night. It didn't work, probably there was some sort of airborn something on the plastic thingy. Anyway there was a little flower of green sugar-mould forming so the top layer (in contact) and the plastic disk were carefully removed and we had a generous portion each with greek-style yogurt for dessert last night. The rest is in the fridge

Going mouldy is always a possibility with bottled fruit and a good reason to keep the jars reasonably visible, wherever you store them, so you can watch out for any signs of deterioration. The sugar mould does not make the fruit taste mouldy until it is quite well established and lifting it off is perfectly acceptable to rescue and consume the rest. We do the same if ever a jar of jam starts to go. Because I use a weak mix of sugar to fruit, in both jams (and jellies) and bottling, it is more likely than a strong mix.

This morning I have made two small (500ml) bottles of crabapple cordial. I grated the zest of half a lemon and then squeezed the juice and added the pith, to 1.5k of halved crabapples and 1.5k of water (should also equate to 1.5L as water has SG of 1)  - brought to the boil and simmered open for 40 minutes. I mashed the fruit a bit with a spud masher, then allowed it to cool. It went in a jelly bag overnight (I pegged the bag to the jelly frame as it was quite heavy). There was just over 1L of juice this morning, so I put that in the preserving pan with 500g of granulated sugar and one crushed campden tablet and gently heated to melt the sugar. Then I brought it to the boil for 5 minutes, and warmed my bottles from cold in the oven to 110c for 15 minutes. I skimmed the skin and scum and then used a funnel to fill the bottles. A little bit left over it would be rude not to taste it. Very much like apple juice. I might try picking some rose-hips but at the moment plum processing is our priority!

In money movements I shuffled £2,500 to the EF. Much needed.

foxgloves

Love the sound of that cordial, @Suffolk_lass. It's such a busy time of year, even for modest food growers such as Mr F & I, to make sure we maximise what we have grown & lay it down for future use. 
I only forage rosehips if I'm planning to make hedgerow jelly, in which case I use roughly half blackberries & the other half is a combination of elderberries, rosehips & haws. I made sloe jelly one year but while I liked the sharp flavour, it had an oddly drying effect on the inside of my mouth & I haven't made it again.
I love harvest time.
F x

Suffolk_lass

I know what you mean @foxgloves, I pick from the hedgerows too, especially a clump of blackberries that are particularly plump and sweet at the moment. We call ours Jumbleberry here (or Jingleberry on the labels for the Christmas sale of made in our Village stall). The recipe I looked at (BBC Good Food) for crabapple cordial used 75% sugar to juice and used rosehips as well as crabapples. Too sweet but a crushed campden tablet stops the less sweet from fermenting.

As you would have seen, I already have quite a lot of jams and jellies and apart from topping the very occasional scone, we are tardy in using it. So currently (or should that be currant-ly? - sorry) we are dolloping a spoonful onto Greek-style yogurt, tinned rice and ice cream. Blackcurrant cordial over vanilla ice cream is yummy too. 

foxgloves

I love the festive name for your berry jam. Yes, I think jam-makers can't bear to let stuff go to waste, then have to think of creative ways to use it up. I like blackberry jam in semolina cake & Mr F likes a dollop on his porridge. For school dinners, we often had 'jam sauce' to jazz up plain puds. I expect that was just jam boiled up with hot water till it was pouring consistency.
F

Suffolk_lass

I might try that with microwave sponge puds this winter. DH was quietly pointing out that we used to eat more organised puddings like crumble, in a not-quite resentful sort of way, only yesterday. Of course we were both 3 stone heavier then...

themadvix

I have a microwave sponge pud recipe where you put the jam in the bottom of the basin and the sponge batter on top - it makes the jam nice and runny (and scorchingly hot!). We’re also fans of jam on plain yoghurt- why pay for flavours?! I currently have a tab open for a jam bun recipe as (inspired by Foxgloves - I’m reading your diary at the moment, still in 2020 though!) I have half a jar of unsealed jam to finish (was missing a jam jar lid). It’s on the list for tomorrow!

 Am glad it’s not just me that struggle to find uses for all the jam made!