Any preserving happing out there?

[Shadowgirlau]

Well we have finished the last jar of homemade jam and DH/DD both complained bitterly about that fact. The grumbles grew even louder when I said I'd pick up some jam next time I was shopping.

As a result I took a container of nectarine pulp and another of apricot pulp out of the freezer and will be making jams over the weekend. I was given a box of oranges the other day and yesterday a bag of lemons so marmalade is also on the agenda.

Making this is going to mean I need jars so today as well as gardening I was on the hunt for my stash of jars. I know I have hundreds, "somewhere." Still I managed to have DH pull apart a couple of solid shelving units which we bought for $50 from a craft shop that was closing down. He pulled them far enough apart so I could walk down between them and I then unwrapped several boxes of jars and have partially filled the shelves with them. I put different sizes on various shelves and am pleased with the result as I can now see at a glace what I have available and what the sizes are. Now I just need to find my lids?
I can see next time I am up in the city I will need to make a trip to Plasdene or one of the other places to get some more lids. Yes I have hundreds of those as well, the question is where are they? So far we have not been able to ferret them out easily at all. In the meantime I do have enough on hand to make do with.

Well this is going to be fun and I certainly wont mind if it is cold on the weekend either

Kathleen

[minnie]

Hi Kathleen,

I have to buy a tomato sauce today.

The whole thought of this is terrible, it's been so long since having to buy tomato sauce... but if they have cheap tomatoes in town I may make a batch if, I can find bottles.

I need chutney too, and may have to go out to the new place to go through my stash!

Enjoy the jamming.
Vicki

[Heidi]

Farmer Charlies were having a special on Kiwi Fruit a little while back, so I bought in bulk and bottled them according to the FV instructions. I opened up a jar the other day to put in a fruit salad, but it was nolonger sweet enough to use, not exactly bitter, but not what you wanted in your fruit salad either. So, I'll probably try and turn them into kiwi fruit jam or sum such! Any good recipes from any one????
Oh, and the passionfruit are raining off the vine, so I am diligently freezing them in muffin trays and then putting them into zip lock bags in the deep freezer. I was also wondering if it would be better to put them straight into the freezer as they come off the vine and save the scooping etc?
We did get two Wiltshire Horn lambs slaughtered the other day, and got almost 40kg of lamb in the freezer now. Lamb cutlets were the first thing I grabbed to eat! Not exactly preserving, but they are preserved in the freezer so to speak!

[Shadowgirlau]

Vicki, you sure made me smile reading your post as you are sorta where I have been for the past couple of years.
No mans land; with things here and there. Know just how you feel with there being no sauce or chutney too. Hope you can find some cheap veg to make your own as once your used to the "good stuff" as my lot say, you really don't want the bought stuff.

Heidi, I will have a look for my Kiwi jam recipe and post it if I find it over in recipes. So sorry to hear it has gone a bit bitter. Can offer no reasons why this has occurred either as I haven't preserved Kiwi fruit on it's own before in this manner.
You can freeze the passion fruit with scooping it out, the only problem there is that although doing so saves time it also takes up a lot of freezer space. Gosh i envy you getting some lambs done and in the freezer, my poor freezer is looking very poorly in the meat department and will remain so for sometime I think.

Kathleen

[Heidi]

Our freezer would be full of beef too, if my 7yo daughter hadn't conned me into keeping the JerseyxAngus heifer that is now 12 months old. Raisin, the heifer, is very lovely, and enjoys a scratch, so she is now going to be one of our breeders. I have unequivocally stated that, regardless of the sex of her offspring, they will go to freezer camp. Luckily though, our charolais calved a big cross angus bull calf. So we will have beef in the freezer next year!
H

[Shadowgirlau]

Yum!

It has turned out that none of our sheep are pregnant, something which was upsetting as we'd requested pregnant ewes when we bought them. Never mind, a ram will fix that I am sure and in a few months time I will looking at lambs myself and so on.

On the preserving issue, yesterday I made nectarine & strawberry jam. Once I had the frozen nectarine pulp in the pan I discovered pits, lots of them and then remembered that I had been disappointed out nectarine tree is cling stone and not freestone when I prepared them So I removed the stones and re weighted the pulp)
Not enough nectarine pulp for the recipe so out came a bag of frozen strawberries and I added enough of those to make up the weight for the batch of jam.

The result was delightful, smelt fabulous and looks such a pretty colour as well. is a little tarter than some people would like for a jam as I didn't add the full amount of sugar called for in the recipe although I am very pleased with the results of this jam.

Today I will make the apricot jam up and maybe also do a strawberry jam as well seeing as I am currently "in the zone" as the family say


Kathleen

[Shadowgirlau]

Well have just completed a batch of apricot jam. Am so very pleased with myself particularly as it took an hour all up. I think pre preparing makes a huge difference and has made for a much more flow on effort. I have just taken the jars out of the BWB and am waiting for them to seal.

Have noticed that the colour is a brilliant golden colour and there is a definite deep taste about this jam. I am wondering if it is because this time when I prepared the apricots I peeled them (same with the nectarines) and this in not something I used to do at all. The jam seems to have a soft texture as well, judging by the taste of the bit that was setting in the little bowl I use for testing. Bit hard to describe actually. Will now have to wait for the "family taste test".

Am on a roll now and so am off to see what fruit I have left in the freezer apart from strawberries, so I can make a decision as to what I will make tomorrow?

Kathleen

[BJTJ]

Have heaps of lemonades on the tree, just haven't had the time to make the marmalade - am envious of all your preserve making Kathleen! Oh well - hope I am not too old when I retire!! In between looking after the grandaughter and organising for the holiday I don't seem to have much time at the moment.

[Shadowgirlau]

BJ, don't wait till you retire

I really recommend pre preparing your fruit so you can make the jam/conserve or marmalade at another time.
I have found that making the actual jam takes way less time when I don't have to prepare it all first.

Kathleen

[Shadowgirlau]

Well yesterday I made 2 batches of strawberry jam. Does this mean I am on a roll?

Today I am making mixed berry conserve - still have 2 bags of frozen strawberries (980gm each) and a bag of mixed berries consisting of blueberries, cherries, boysenberries and raspberries. So mixed berry conserve it will be.

While sussing out the freezer for the berries I also found that I still have a 1.6kg container of frozen apricot pulp on which I have written - for apricot chutney so I shall have to look up my recipe for chutney and see what I need for that. I doubt I will make this up though as I do not like buying vege that is not in season.

The family have been looking at all my jars of jam, saying they can't get over the colour of it all. So deep and intense compared to bought jams. I had to reprocess a couple of jars last night as they didn't seal the first time but it was thankfully, 2nd time lucky.

Kathleen

[Shadowgirlau]

Still in the processing mood today so currently have on the go a batch of mixed berry conserve. Ingredients will consist of strawberries (have one bag left after this) raspberries, black and red currants, boysenberries and blueberries.

I do wish my lemon tree would hurry up and grow enough to start producing as something tells me i have no lemons left?
Darn it! wonder if next door has any?

Back to the grind stone I go, have a great day everyone

Kathleen

[dggoatlover]

I have no plants to make anything with The only goodside is that my MIL dropped by yesterday with two shopping bags full of passionfruit from their vine so I am diligently freezing and eating as many as I can. Yum!

I finally started getting some of the compast, marue and mulch down over the weekend just gone so baby steps and I will get there. I'm flat out trying to finish the back shed for the goats though as kidding starts in four weeks. Oooh I can't wait to have more babies around

[Mojojo]

the deep colours and flavours sound fabulous, and it cetrainly sounds like you are on a roll there Kathleen. I am back to bought jam after having run out of my own recent (small) batches, and it tastes... just super sweet, and thats all, not a lot of fruitiness.
I threw in another batch of soup in the pressure cooker last week, tomato and vege. If I do another batch every break (have 6 days at home a fortnight) it should keep us in soups for lunch while camping & working down on the block. (hope to get the shed finished before the winter rains break, then there'll be a fire in the shed and no more tenting!)

[Shadowgirlau]

Thank you Jo,
Finished the mixed berry jam this afternoon. Looks very deep in colour and tastes okay (I think) darn not having any taste these days. oops, another pop, 3 down two to go!

Sounds like you are getting along with your shed, shall keep my fingers crossed that you finish it before the rains really come on.

On the Goat front, good luck with the babies arrival. I have been thinking about goats lately but am yet to look into them properly. Too much going on around here I guess.

Kathleen

[Shadowgirlau]

Well have been doing a stock take on what I have in the preserved line of goodies. Discovered I have more than I thought I did but not as much as I would either like or need. Mind you some of this is because of storage restrictions at this time.

As a result of this stock take I discovered we are down to our last jar of tomato sauce, have plenty of jams/spreads, very little left in the way of soups, no relish, a bakers dozen of pickled beetroot (heaps there), and no bottled fruit at all. Actually quite a poor showing

Well I have no updated my list and expect to be busy this year once the garden gets going and the fruit comes in.
Fun days ahead so now I had better work on my shopping list so I can be sure the pantry will not run out while I am doing the deed.

By the way, has anyone on here used calcium .... something a rather to improve the crispness of their pickles? I will remember what it is

Cheers
Kathleen

[mallee11]

Well today I am bottling about 50 jars of green beans and 50 jars of carrots and will be doing a batch of tomato soup I have a very dear friend with a hot house who traded the tomato's for some potato seed and I have a few little helpers peeling the carrots as I type PUPIL free day

[Shadowgirlau]

Lucky you some help even!

I'd be envious but truth is I am going out today to do my next most favourite thing - quilt Have fun!

Kathleen

[Heidi]

At the moment I'm doing a lemon challenge!
Our neighbour's have a huge lemon tree that is laden with gorgeously organic lemons. So, given unlimited access I have so far made...
Ginger bear (very light on lemons unfortunately)
Gallons of lemon cordial (from the recipe found on this site). I have I think about 20 litres of straight cordial, but my children really like it, and you only need a small amount to make the water so flavourful! Will be using this extensively in summer months!
Jars and jars of lemon butter (technically lemon curd)
Jars and jars of passionfruit butter (technically passionfruit curd)

I'm very grateful for the glut of eggs, lemons and passionfruit.

Okay, now for the question... I waterbathed the lemon and passionfruit butters, but am unsure if this actually preserves them because they have egg in them? Do I keep them in the fridge, or as they are waterbathed, can I keep them safely in the pantry?

Bye for now,
H

[Cundalini]

Hi Heidi,
I’ve made several batches of Lemon & 1 passionfruit butter. In an attempt to find the best recipe's I have googled different recipe’s, all very similar the only difference being some slight sugar to butter to lemons variances. One thing they all say is to store in the fridge for 2 weeks, some say 3. From what I understand your correct in thinking the danger lies in the egg & I don’t think its oblivious if the batch has turned bad if you lose track of how old the it is. I have wondered if its possible to freeze back lemon butter, if so how long does it last for?

Hope this helps

[Shadowgirlau]

Good Morning Heidi,
Unfortunately you will have to keep this lemon butter in the fridge as it has egg in it. I do have a lemon butter (curd) recipe that is specifically for canning and of course can be stored on the shelf. If you want this then I will hunt it up for you. Haven't made it for awhile because I've no access to lemons and my own tree is too young to produce yet. I bought some not long ago as we all had a yearning for lemon butter, I think we all had it on bread once and since then it has sat in the fridge untouched. The consensus was that - it's not the same as yours Mum. I have started adding the bought butter to icings and fillings for cakes to use it up as i don't like to waste food (or anything else I have bought) by throwing it out.

What a sterling job you have done thus far.

Cheers
Kathleen