Preserving, it has started

[Deleted User]

Lets get this thread up and running. It is june 2018 and produce will not wait but first I will mention the very best food preservation book I have ever used. You can still get it from amazon for 1p second hand or around £7 new


`home preservation of fruit and vegetables` by AFRC institute of food research


Perhaps people could say what they are growing and picking or buying in bulk.

mumf

I have had a copy of that book for twenty years now.Excellent information.

I was !ooking at the plums on our tree,forming nicely.Dealing with them will be a job on its own.The fowls are laying well,so I am pickling eggs regularly now.

[Deleted User]

I need to be frugal with my freezer space this year, my small overflow chest freezer is off and full of empty lock n lock boxes. Freezing is a favourite of mine when it comes to preserving but is not the be all and end all. I used to brine vegetables, bottle fruit, preserve berries in rum, dehydrate, make jams and chutneys etc All of which are safe in a prolonged power cut

I still have bottled fruit from 2015, purees and jams from 2012 and without fail, they open with a pop and are are as good as the day they were made. I am very hygenic and everything is spotless and equipment is all sterilised, washing hot and using the oven or boiling water. I keep all jars cool and dark. Jams I always top with a teaspoonful of good strong alcohol like brandy or whisky

There are some methods I no longer use as I am older and now on my own. I no longer brine or make sauerkraut as I can easily buy non-pasteurised these days and anyway I don`t grow the big cabbages any more. I no longer freeze green beans, don`t like them frozen, I rarely dehydrate fruit and veg and again down to circumstances, I don`t make chutneys as they contain a lot of sugar. I only grow what I, personally want to eat so things have changed

Today I have my first lot of gooseberries, from an invicta, side branches taken off in 2015 and now grown as a standard, like my other 6 gooseberries, hinamaki which will ripen in a couple of weeks. Bottled gooseberries have been wonderfully successful, I bottled 40 jars in 2015 and there are still some left. I intend bottling some of these today, probably only 3 x 500ml kilner jars and this time, never done previously, in my pressure cooker. I always did the slow water bath method which took about 90 minutes of precise temperatutes and me standing the whole time. Pressure cooking will take 5-10 minutes to get up to low pressure, then just 1 minute and then off to cool down

I eat berries every single day throughout the year, my freezer still contains blackcurrants and I have just finished the raspberries. This year I have 10 very laden blueberry bushes, 6 in large pots at home and 6 heavily laden blackcurrant bushes on my allotment. I have run my hand up and down the blackcurrants and let many fall into the compost trug, I will get fewer and bigger fruits

The other day I found a bottled jar of plum puree made in 2012, I have a few more, cannot say how nice that is. Someone gave me loads of those small plums with an orange tint, can`t remember their name and I remember using a big steel mouli to remove the stones

Rhubarb was first this year, I just washed and chopped into fairly small pieces and froze, now I have a strawberry glut so have frozen a few small boxes of slices but also made rhubarb and strawberry compote which I have frozen, it extends the strawberry taste and is lovely. I could bottle rhubarb too, I will probably do some, never done it before but there are good stalks on my plants and I have frozen quite enough

Onward with the gooseberry bottling today, using a light syrup, likely to be 5 oz sugar to one pint, used boiling so I don`t even have to wait for it to go cold

[Deleted User]

mumf, I was looking through my book, I have so many notes in mine, usually on notelets, starting with sauerkraut in a 500ml kilner jar, 800g shredded cabbage and 1 tbs of salt, weighed down on top of a leaf. There is a bit more to it than that but it is very easy

[Deleted User]

drat, I finished and they look a bit too overcooked, I never had that with the slow water bath. I had a lid problem so it was boiling too long and the steam never lifted the pressure knob. I had to take the lid off and tighten it with a knife and then it worked. I do feel like giving it another go with the gooseberries or it will take me an awful long time to bottle all my fruit. I can get 5 jars in my jam maslin so slow water bath is ok if I can cope with the boredom



This way needed boiling syrup, boiling water to pre heat the jars and sterilise the tops and to start with boiling water in the pressure cooker. All I do with a water bath is trivet, fruit in jars, cover with cold syrup etc and start from cold water in the maslin. I can hear the lids popping now. All is not lost, the fruit will be preserved and I can eventually strain and it will be a nice topping for ice cream and yoghurt. Appearance wouldn`t win a competition though

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

The strawberry and rhubarb compote sounds lovely, I have a glut of both at the moment. How do you make yours?

Nonnadiluca

Great thread, thanks Kittie! I have already done elderflower cordial and rhubarb jam - the rhubarb has gone crazy again this year so any suggestions for something other than jam or freezing would be welcome. Our gooseberries are plentiful and nearly ready and I was wondering what to do with them, bottling it is! I will consult the interweb later. We have two Victoria plum trees, a greengage, a Mirabelle and another plum tree, a golden something or other. They are all laden and I think that for the first time there will be some left to preserve after OH and I and the two grandsons have had our fill. Plum pur!e sounds lovely! Is there anything more satisfying than a cupboard full of homemade preserves? I will follow this thread with great interest.

[Deleted User]

yay, the inner kilners lids are dipped and rock solid so the seal is perfect. I gently loosened the gooseberries by turning the jars and they look better but I know I overcooked. Heyho, never too old to learn and I also think I counted 1 minute too slowly

Rhubarb compote, just make small chunks from the rhubarb and start it cooking very gently, add the sliced strawberries in any amount. I cooked until there was still a bit of shape to it but they were soft. I haven`t added any sugar and it is fine.

Gosh you are going to be very busy, like me. I hate wasting good fruit so it all gets processed. I need loads of freezer space for stewed apple and I have a wooden apple store with lots of drawers, I spent quite some time this week thinning my apples, got rid of about 70% and about 30% blackcurrants. Turning the gooseberries into standards has helped a lot too

Oakdene

Hope no one minds me asking but I made some chutney last winter & sealed the kilner jars & they've been in a dark cupboard since. I went to open one the other day but physically couldn't open it!! I even tried prising it open with a flat head screw driver.... any tips on safely opening?

tessie_bear

excited to see this thread I'm a novice preserver normally marmalade in January and blackberry jam in the summer....going to make bramble jelly this year quite excited about it as noticed the first blackberry flowers today...I think the wild blackberry have the best flavour

opening your jar turn it upside down give it a good slap with your hand on the bottom then try and open summat to do with breaking the vacuum

Oakdene

tessie_bear wrote: »

excited to see this thread I'm a novice preserver normally marmalade in January and blackberry jam in the summer....going to make bramble jelly this year quite excited about it as noticed the first blackberry flowers today...I think the wild blackberry have the best flavour

opening your jar turn it upside down give it a good slap with your hand on the bottom then try and open summat to do with breaking the vacuum

Thank you, shall give it a good slap when I get home.