The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

MingVase

I've got loads of these growing wild all over my front garden, lovely!

thriftwizard

I've found rather a good substitute for Certo - found a box of 2017 crab apple jelly hiding in the garage, which has been "superseded" by last year's batch. So I tried tipping a small jar into my Strawberry, Lime & Elderflower jam, which set fairly quickly (17 jars!) and have done the same to some cherry jam this morning.

I was given (for free!) a massive bag of ripe cherries "for the chickens" at the market yesterday & it was a bit of a race to use/preserve them before they went over. About a quarter (damaged) went straight out to the chickens & wild birds, a litre went off with DS2's beloved, a tray (at least another litre) went into the freezer, 350g went into a batch of cherry & mascarpone ice-cream, and the rest got en-jammed this morning. It will take a week to get the juice out from under my fingernails... but that's better than black walnut!

Hoping to declutter the garage over the next few weeks, then set up some shelves at the more-accessible end to store extra preserves - visibly! - & the equipment, which currently just gets stuffed into any spare corner and is occasionally found being used for nefarious purposes; Him Indoors is still shuddering after being found using my best brewing bucket for pond water, complete with tadpoles. I'd still like to get my hands on the "developer" who tore down the larder in 1987...

[Deleted User]

Blimey D for V that's a million dollar word for this time of day! his nibbleswick doesn't do strawberries in any shape or form, or cucumber and it's taken me nearly half a century to get him to eat chicken and 'green things' that aren't peas and as for bones in meat, he's even been heard to comment that a T Bone steak has got 'a bloomin bone in it!'( all in the name perhaps?) and he didn't do fish until he got me either so I've educated the little blighter to a certain degree and life is healthier than it used to be in the sustenance department.

A discovery today which has me most relieved is that we have looked on the map and found the source of the brook that runs outside the house across the road is actually a 'spring' up in the hills and has footpath access from just up our road all the way to it, possibly a couple of miles away but in extremesis I have the clean water source needed for drinking water, we live and learn playmates, we live and learn!

DigForVictory

Mrs LW, in a way I am relieved to hear there is another bloke who is an obstinate so & so on matters like chicken. And impressed that he's been educated into better ways...

Cherries? Blimey thriftwizard that's Fate saying Sorry about the larder! Have you heard of Nostradamus' cherry jam recipe? Hacked out of the original French (Dear Heavens) it does indeed make "To do Jelly of Cherryes that is so Clear & Vermillion like a fine Rubey, & of Goodness, Taste & Virtue Excellent, that the Cherryes will Preserve Long in Perfection without adding anything but the Fruit: & will be fit to present to a King for their Supreme Excellence" However noone's translated that recently so I refer you to the other one, "Another Way to make Jelly of Cherryes, that is more Delicate than the First but it is more Dear & is for Great Lords " which uses less sugar & is still sensational to eye & tongue!

If you next find yourself donated a batch of cherries, this is something to try. If only for the colour & the bragging rights on the label, but it does taste amazing too.

"for the chickens" - I must definitely come & visit....

DigForVictory

Had a second try at rhubarb cordial, this time with granulated sugar, lump root ginger & a proper straining muslin & the results are a tasteful & expensive-looking pink. (Unlike the previous batch that looked unnervingly like the output from a postoperative drain [but tasted fine].)

I'll have to figure how to ship a bottle down to my mother, so we can sit in whatever sunshine the fates provide & sip Rhubarb Bellinis, albeit it with soda for me... I have to say it's much nicer than the rhubarb of my primary school memories & there are still stalks, albeit lurid green, in the garden. (Advice Mrs LW? Will they turn pink eventually, or should I shroud them in something lightproof?) It's the BBC recipe I used, and thus very nearly idiot proof.

Should you still have rhubarb & a nasty sense of humour in Autumn, the Halloween version uses light brown muscovado sugar, ground ginger, a couple of easy peel clementines but above all you strain it through a sieve & no fabric, so it develops a more intimidating thickness. And foams to produce a dense head in a pint glass as you add sparkling water...

[Deleted User]

Depends on the variety D for V, some of them are naturally pink and some age and get pinker but the cordial seems always to turn pink regardless of the variety of rhubarb. If you exclude the light it will blanch and just get lighter.


If you want to keep the cordial for a period of time it needs sterilising in a water bath, deep pan, bottles in on a cloth and not touching each other cover fully with water (right over the lids, corks), bring the water slowly to a simmer and keep it there for at least an hour. remove the bottles carefully while they're hot and dry them completely and seal the corks with melted candle wax. This will ensure they don't ferment in storage but it's fiddly and time consuming. Depending on how far the journey to mum takes a far easier way to transport the cordial is to freeze it solid and insulate that very well in a couple of cloths in a cool bag with some frozen blocks and transport it that way (you have to use plastic bottles if you're freezing it not glass and leave an expansion space at the neck of the bottle) it should stay frozen and no danger of leakage. At the end of the journey when it defrosts for your bellinis keep what's left in the fridge and it will last 6 weeks or as long as the alcohol holds out!

DigForVictory

<takes notes on water bath technique for Batch 3 with an eye on Christmas>

Meanwhile must find freezerpacks to ship to mum. Or just take the day off & a train, & plan to combine her plus lit airy space for album photo!

Thanks to teaching Scouts to shoot (target faces only) I am gradually getting more accurate myself but I'm not certain how transferable the skill is at our short range. Still, hoping to add sports crossbow to the instructor trained list, so get more practice targeting...

DigForVictory

Have to say while batch 2 is prettier, it lacks the two by four flavour of batch 1. Hmm, version 1 for me, version 2 for Christmas I think.

Offspring sighted in the front garden just munching sorrel & coaching mate in identification & sharing the fun. Splendid - teaching hungry teenage lads to forage is time well spent. Plus, if they prefer sorrel to the tiny wild strawberries, we'll get jam...

thriftwizard

I just made a batch of jam with a £2 tray (12 punnets) of "official" jam strawberries from the market, and it reached setting point in minutes! I did throw in a handful of redcurrants from the garden, but I doubt that there were enough to make a difference, pectin-wise. These strawbs were small, some mis-shapen, some dark & quite hard, but fantastically tasty & you could smell them clear down the hallway, at the opposite end of the house to the kitchen! Couldn't resist also making a batch of ice-cream with them & saving some for Eton Mess tomorrow - I made meringues with some egg whites left over from a batch of Straciatella.

I'll ask the stallholder tomorrow whether they are a special breed, or just ones the supermarket buyers have rejected at the docks. If they are produced deliberately, it's well worth seeking them out.

DigForVictory

Just a thought. Amidst all your canned goods, do you have a spare can opener? It can be the "butterfly" thing, or the "punch & scrunch" bit of wiggly tin or even the (terrifying) tiny foldout blade as found with Army rations & even sold for camping.

Just do you have a spare you can operate? Perhaps along with the spare key for the corned beef (and I'd have a pack of sticky plasters handy to that, or require absolute monastic silence as I focus on the job - a mate not unreasonably calls the open can, lid or strip as all "sharp enough to do his own appendectomy".)

Just a thought.