I'm going preserves mad

[sleepyowl]

In an attempt to save mony on Christmas presents & still give decent presents I started do take up preserving thisyear instead of just making puddings etc but I think I have gone a bit mad. I have made rosehip syrup, damson jam, bramley apple sauce & mint sauce, I will be making pickled beetroot. blackberry jam & horseradish sauce as well as making chutney (but not from home grown or forraged ingredients on that one I'm cheating by doing apricot & ginger chutney). I'm also looking at making mead to put in the hampers as well as fudge & biscuits although the latter two I will do closer to the time. Is anyone else in the same boat as me?

[Milims]

My friend was looking for my coffee cups the other day and she found my jam cupboard! She was rather worried as to how it stayed on the wall! I was given lots of plums and apples - so there's plum jam and Dowerhouse chutney. Then I had lots of courgettes and some green tomatoes - so I made courgette and green tomato chutney, and there's my usual supply of home made tomato ketchup. I still have lots of apples and plums - but I've run out of jars so I'm begging for them on freecycle!

[Graye]

It's a pity but I have my mother staying here in France at the moment and she has just informed me that she has lots in her garage (she is one of life's hoarders) and she only lives about 10 miles from you. She won't be back for a while so not much use for you I'm afraid.

Have you tried freecycle?

[Cheezy]

Yep, following the purchase of Pam Corbins RC preserves book, I'll admitt I've gone a bit CRAZY!

So far:

Strawberry jam (allotment glut) 5 jars
Still making Autum Bliss Raspberry jam from current glut (I think we're up to 9 jars !!)
Hegderow jelly (aka Bramble, apple and plum) 6 jars
Chutney (Glutney type mainly courgettes and red tomatoes!) 7 jars
Roasted tomato Passata (tomato glut!) 5 big jars
Picallili (cauliflower , french beans and courgettes!) 5 jars

This has precipatated a few rows, a kitchen de-clutter, and the proposal of new shelving!

Want to go for Pontillac (an elderberry aged sauce)
slow gin, then using sloes sloe gin chutney
there's hopes for next doors dansons for jam

I had to get some more kilner jars for my passata, the cooks shop we have said they were nearly out when I went in , and their supplier had sold 20,000 in August alone!

[Millymollymandy]

I'm doing peach chutney at the moment and despairing at the amount of peaches that keep dropping of one solitary tree! If all the peach trees that we have here (at least 16) produced like that I don't know what I'd do.

[Graye]

You still have peaches on the trees in Brittany? Ours have long since all fallen off the tree and are now busily making 12 gallons of peach wine. The leaves are falling here too...

[Millymollymandy]

Graye - it's the fact that I AM in Brittany that they don't start ripening until the 3rd week of September! You're down in the hot bit somewhere I guess.

[Graye]

True! It's still very hot down here (just on the Dordogne/Charente border) and our peaches were all ripe by the end of August, starting two weeks before. We were frantically trying to collect them up and get them into fermenting buckets. It's a pity they don't somehow manage to stage their development so we can enjoy them for longer...

The strange thing is that we were back in the UK the week before last and picked four pounds of beautifully ripe sloes in the north of England (they are in the freezer back there - getting their dose of "frost" for when we are back for the winter and have more time (and cheap Spanish gin)to make use of them) and although we picked plenty of sloes here in early September there are still plenty of them around, also blackberries and elderberries.

Now we also have walnuts and figs in the local wood. I've started off fig wine along with some tomato wine with the enormous glut we have. I'm still debating what to do with the walnuts. I'm allergic to them but I'm sure I could make something useful for presents.

[frozenthunderbolt]

I'm still debating what to do with the walnuts. I'm allergic to them but I'm sure I could make something useful for presents.

Use them, to make dukka for dipping bread and oil in! YUM!

[Islay]

I thought I'd gone a bit preserve mad (pictures here and here at bottom of post), but when I actually worked out how much we use (a jar of jam every couple of weeks, the same for chutney), there won't actually be that many left over for Christmas presents if we want t to last until next august.

Christmas presents will consist of preserves and variations on the theme of:
1) homemade candles
2) homemade soap
3) knitted goods
4) baked goods (xmas cake for parents, biscuits etc for others

[Millymollymandy]

I spent all day yesterday making peach chutney and I did double the quantity in my recipe book - only to get a miserly 4 and a bit jars from it! Hardly seems worth the effort.

Islay wish I could send you some jam. We hardly ever eat it but it's a bit hard to just make 2 jars of this or 1 of that. Chutney however does get eaten, a lot.

[anarchistinslippers]

I made my first batch on tomato chutney the other day, with very good results. Dead pleased with myself I was.

[gigglybug]

Lol I know the feeling!

I was given lots of plums and apples this year and that has started my obsession! lol
I have made spiced apple jam, Bramble and apple jelly, plum jam (x2), Kiwi Jam (looks a bit like frog spawn, but yummy!), and Lemon curd.

I have also got into wine making we have made Elderberry wine, the Damson didn't work, but we have sloe wine, blackberry and apple wine and muscadine wine on the go.

Poor Jim likes it but he does wish he could see the kitchen again

[mrsflibble]

yep, I have a shelf in my rather large larder dedicated to home made preserves. We have blackberry jelly, organic clementine marmalade, pickled shallots and pickled onions (the shallots were el cheapo, the onions I grew, I just bunged them all in the same jars to pickle them)

I'm planning on doing some lavendar jelly cos my last batch didn't work (thank you Certo ).

I recently got some new jars, something I don't normally do but there were perfect hamper size, recycled glass and 1.99 for 6!!!

[anarchistinslippers]

Have just put the last of the beetroot in pickling vinegar and intend to leave them for a few years ;)