Any ideas for my fruit from the garden?

shelovestobuystuff

I am embarrassed to say that I have not made full use of the fruit trees in my garden.I do okay with the veg and keep us going on potatoes and herbs too.
We eat some fruit raw but I would really love to do something else too.We have a victoria plum tree which gives us bucketloads of fruit and an apple tree which although still young will give us about 80 apples this year I think.We have rhubarb too which I do use to make a lovely crumble for pudding.Any recipes please especially for using the sweet victoria plums which I have far too many off come September and most of them fall for the butterflies to feast on.
I really need tips on preserving fruit and veg as I lost a lot of bramley apples given to me by my neighbour last year after setting them out in a way I though would keep them well.And how do you keep potatoes from shooting?
Any advice please so that theres no waste from my garden this year.

Pink.

Hi shelovestobuystuff,

These threads have lots of suggestions which may help:

What can I do with 2lbs of plums?

What To Do With Apples?

Rhubarb ideas

If you have a look in The Complete Jam, Chutney and other Preserves collection you may find some useful threads too.

For the potatoes there are lots of ideas on this thread:

Help! How do I store potatoes?

I hope this helps and that you have a great crop this year.

Pink

freyasmum

I made rhubarb jam last week (my first time ever making jam!) and it was delicious - dd has been having it on bread at lunchtime

Penelope_Penguin

freyasmum wrote: »

I made rhubarb jam last week (my first time ever making jam!) and it was delicious - dd has been having it on bread at lunchtime

Could you share your recipe, please

I made some and though it's nice, it's too sweet for me.

Penny. x

freyasmum

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Could you share your recipe, please

I made some and though it's nice, it's too sweet for me.

Penny. x

Mine may not be the best recipe then... I have an awful sweet tooth

I had 1 1/2 lbs of rhubarb from the garden, same weight of sugar and the peel of just over 1/2 lemon.

I chopped it all up - the lemon peel was chopped very finely, put it all in the pan and cooked it until it got to setting point (actually, I cooked it a little past setting, but that's besides the point :whistle:).

It's delish, and I shall definitely be making it again.

Penelope_Penguin

freyasmum wrote: »

Mine may not be the best recipe then... I have an awful sweet tooth

I had 1 1/2 lbs of rhubarb from the garden, same weight of sugar and the peel of just over 1/2 lemon.

Thank you :A Those proportions are the same as I had, but mine had ginger in - recipe's here. I'll have to see if I can find one with lower proportion.

Penny. x

buxtonrabbitgreen

Instead of the risk of loosing your apples this year you could freeze them. I froze foraged apples last year. Just keep them under cold water while you slice and peel then freeze on a tray, then they can go in a bag and will remain separate ready for pie crumble etc. Plums make lovely jam and set really well.
If yoo want to store your apples my mum used to do it by keeping them in the garage, dark and cool. A single layer in a cardboard box. So if one did go off it didn't send all of them off.

ubamother

victoria plums make a lovely crumble - you could prepare in advance and freeze. What about making a blueberry muffin mix, with chunks of plum instead - making the mix all but the liquid and putting it in the freezer?

freyasmum

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Thank you :A Those proportions are the same as I had, but mine had ginger in - recipe's here. I'll have to see if I can find one with lower proportion.

Penny. x

I think you have to use the same amount of sugar to fruit for it to set?

I haven't tasted it with ginger, but the lemon was nice - it said in the original recipe to finely grate it, but I just chopped it (took ages though!) and you can taste it a bit through the rhubarb.

shelovestobuystuff

OOh,didn,t think of using the plums in a crumble.Thanks.

helenamy123

hi,

As well as jam you could always use the plums for making wine?

I have a damson tree that has been under used -up until this year - I have been practising making wine already and have lots of jam jars at the ready for jam so this is the year - roll on september! lol

btw - i made rhubarb jam today, and it is very sweet too, perhaps leave out a bit of sugar next time? 1/5th or something?

best wishes

helen x