Bumper Harvest

[Ecoman]

Well I'm taking a breather from the harvest.

I have a bumper crop of Haws, rowans and brambles. I've made so much bramble jam that I've run out of small Kilner jars and the local hardware shop wont be getting any more in for a few weeks. Oh the joys of living on an island. I think I can afford to wait.

So in a weeks time I will be harvesting elderberries and making cordial. I will also be looking at making some sort of bramble jelly for my daughter. She loves the taste of it but hates the seeds.

In 2 weeks time I will be harvesting sloes and freezing, making rowan schnapps, Hawthorne schnapps, haws leather and a hawthorn and chilli sauce.

2 weeks after that it will be sloe gin time.

Then its time to play the waiting game until xmas

 

[John Fenna]

We use old honey jars for our jams - over the years we have collected a fair few and simply reuse them each year...
My wife makes the jams, I make the wines and flavour the spirits, make the fruit leathers and savoury fruit and herb jellies lots of work for us at this time of year!

 

[xylaria]

I ran out of jars. Tescos cheapest fruit jam doesnt have sulphites or preservatives, and makes a really good wine, the jars now have a really good spiced blackberry and apple jam in them. It might sound a bit wierd making buying jam to make wine, so you can make jam, but it makes sense to me. For £8 we got 4 gallons of rose wine and 18 jars of premium jam. I have the bottles for haw ketchup ready.

 

[woodstock]

We use the Tesco 29p a jar of jam which goes to make wine and the jars are then cleaned and filled with homemade jam, Aldi are now doing jam at the same price, we reseal the jars using the pressure cooker, works a treat.

sorry great minds

 

[British Red]

Nothing wrong with a bit of pressure canning. Jars of the bane of our existence! We run so many types

Honey jars (no good for chutneys), jam and chutney jars (no good for honey), pressure canning Kilner jars (good for everything but wasteful for all but canned goods), Le Parfait (clip lid) jars (superb for dry goods, can be used for everything including pressure canning).

We are probably running at around 500 jars we currently use - but we need far more of the more expensive types.

I have come to hate harvest season. My arms are a mess right now - burns and scalds all over them

 

[Toddy]

Talking of jars and bottles....I bought loads of Kilner ones this year and am frankly appalled at the poor quality
They make them in China now and they're carp My old ones are twenty years old and still perfect; the new ones are unevenly moulded. Thick bits and thin bits and loads of bubbles in the glass.
How come the cheapest of jam jars are perfect yet these ones are really bad ? Two of the bottles with the wired caps actually leaked out of the seam.
Never again, I'm just keeping and washing out the ordinary food jars and buying new lids.
I got the new lids from a beekeepers supplier in Denbighshire
http://www.bottlesandjars.co.uk
He will send a sample pack of lids so that you buy the right size.
None of them fit the Kilner jars though, but that's the only part of them I haven't had a problem with.

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

When you say Kilner jars Mary - two part lid or clip lid type?

 

[Toddy]

Both, and the bottles meant for sauces. The sloe gin type flask ones seem to be fine.

I really never, ever thought that I'd have to check every single jar or bottle in a pack of Kilner ones

It cost more for an empty jar than it costs to buy one full of jam or olives or such, wash it out and it's perfect.
I found that the Mason jars used for commercial tomato sauce mixes work fine with the kilner lids, and the sauce is 79p just now in B&M's and it's good too That's about a 500ml size jar.

M

 

[British Red]

You know that's a good idea...I wonder if there is something similar in a mainstream supermarket (no B&M here)?

I've not had any problem with the screw down type - but I only buy Le Parfait clip type now - much better I find.

 

[underground]

Am I right in thinking 'Le Parfait' type are the one with a rubber seal and a glass lid that you tighten using a steel clip? I've found the 'proper' ones a bit rubbish too - orange seals that perish, galv steel that oxidises and rusts, and needs careful closing to ensure a seal. I've been much more impressed with the cheap Ikea ones for dried spices etc that I buy in massive bags and find they also look better on the shelf, the seals seem to be silicone. Never used them for preserves other than 10 lbs strawberry jam and that was gone far too quick and the next glut never arrived (admittedly they were Elsanta ones from the Co-op at 10p/punnet where I just bought the lot)

 

[British Red]

They are - but there are many types. The seals are meant to be replaced regularly (widely available). I find the real, branded ones, seal well and last well - I'm using some at least 15 years old. The cheap Ikea and Tesco ones do not seal properly (form a vacuum) or stand up to high heat and pressure cooking IME. Probably okay for just dry goods though

 

[Uilleachan]

There seems to have been a bumper crop of most berries this year, the rowans in particular are heaving.

Jars, I just recycle pop top lids and jars. Clean them up and pour in the boiling preserve liquid leaving a little gap and with gloved hand fit the lid, once cool a vacuum forms depressing the pop top. Those that don't seal get used first. Saying that I've had very few fail to seal.

My daughter was reminiscing last year at jam making time, about jam we'd made when she was 4 or 5, her wee pal and her had collected two basins of raspberries so to save waste we made jam out of what they couldn't eat.

Off into the back of the cupboard and there was a little jar of 7 or 8 year old raspberry jam jarred in this way. Cracked the top and we scoffed it on toast.

 

[Tadpole]

I've given up on the Jam making this year, Ran out of Jars two weeks ago, (people never return the Jars when you give them Jam and chutney, and I don't buy much in the way of Jams from the supermarket) My fruit harvest went into wine making, Made a gallon each of Grape and Elderberry, Elderberry and grape, White Grape with wild yeast, grape and black blackberry last night. and still the fruit keeps coming.

 

[Ecoman]

I'm trying to keep my suppliers local to me and the best quality jars we have here are the Kilner ones. I have always liked Kilner jars for one reason or another an have a good stock of various sizes. Its only the smaller jars I've run out of so not a train smash. We only have one supermarket on the island and that's Co-op. I've not really done much shopping with this company before so still getting used to "own brand" items.

I agree with you Mary the quality of jars has seriously gone down over the past few years.

Do you use a canner to get a good vacuum seal or a large pan or pressure cooker with a lid? I tend to do the same as Tadpole and heat the jars up until they are too hot to touch either in the over or in a big pan. I then just pour in the boiling jam and seal straight away. The cooling action causes a vacuum and any bugs are killed off with the heat of the jars and product.

Haws ketchup sounds good, you got a recipe for that I could use? What does that go well with?

 

[Toddy]

I find that if I do the boiling hot jam and immediate sealing though, that I end up with condensation at the top as the jam shrinks as it cools. I think that's why folks used the wax discs and cellophane/rubber band seals in the first place. It seals but breathes enough to let the condensation evaporate.

I make jam using the wax and cellophane and a lid once it's cool, but I make chutney and use the fast seal kilner lids. If it blows, we use it up quickly, but if it's a stored jar that has blown I compost the stuff. We're not in need enough to risk botulism, though usually that has a distinctive sewage-y smell. Thing is though, over vinegar and spiced chutney, a tiny taint would be hard to notice and it could still leave you very ill indeed.

I opened a jar of gooseberry jam that was made nine summers ago, and it was still good

I'm out of space for storage

atb,
M

 

[Ecoman]

That's my huge bugbear in this new place, no space for storage. In my old house, although it was smaller, we had a large utility room fitted out with cupboards. In winter and throughout summer it kept pretty cool so Ideal for storage. This new modern house we are currently living in has a tiny utility room and the air source heat exchanger is in there so its too warm to be a storage area. Great for wine making but as that takes up so much space I've had to knock that on the head for the time being until I get a garden shed for my camping and fishing gear. The only place I have for storage is one cupboard in the kitchen and one under the stairs. Once we are settled on the island and our house on the mainland has been sold, we will be looking for another house with a workshop and walk in pantry.

How do you guys seal your jars then for long term storage? Its good to get new ideas to try out, it might be a lot better than me constantly burning my fingers on hot jars!! lol

 

[Toddy]

I live in a neat wee modern 4apt end terrace house. We have good cupboards, but with me following a gluten free pretty much vegan diet, HWMBLT is an omnivore and Son2 is a vegetarian, our pantry store cupboard is a very eclectic mix. It's not just bread flour, it's four different varieties of wheat based bread flour and then about 12 different gluten free flours too, iimmc. Admittedly some of those are shared, like the Idli stuff and cornmeal, but by the time I add in the wild foraging and dried foods, it's crowded. Over Winter storage of jars and bottles is a pain; the weight alone is an issue on built in shelves.
Granny's kitchen had a scullery attached and the pantry was off that. It stayed cold. Modern houses, especially in our climate really need porches and mudrooms as well as utility rooms, but that makes them expensive.

Long term storage, I use the seals for jams and jellies and the kilner ones for chutneys, etc., Water baths and pressure canning I really don't do nowadays, but British Red has some really good, clear tutorials on the topics

cheers,
M

 

[Stringmaker]

Nothing wrong with a bit of pressure canning. Jars of the bane of our existence! We run so many types

Honey jars (no good for chutneys), jam and chutney jars (no good for honey), pressure canning Kilner jars (good for everything but wasteful for all but canned goods), Le Parfait (clip lid) jars (superb for dry goods, can be used for everything including pressure canning).

We are probably running at around 500 jars we currently use - but we need far more of the more expensive types.

I have come to hate harvest season. My arms are a mess right now - burns and scalds all over them

I have a question if I may?

With your seemingly year-round sowing/harvesting/gathering/producing of various foodstuffs has it got to the point yet where you have a warehouse full of stored stuff?

You seem to be a prolific producer!

 

[Big Stu 12]

I keep wondering about doing some preserving but never get round to it... am I getting from what people say here that dont bother with the Kilner's, I dont buy a lot of jams from the supeprmarkets as I live on my own,

If the Kilner Jars are no good, where can I buy a "starter Pack" as such? I looked at the link for bottle and jars but saw packs of 40+ not sure I need that many at the mo

 

[British Red]

How do you guys seal your jars then for long term storage? Its good to get new ideas to try out, it might be a lot better than me constantly burning my fingers on hot jars!! lol

I do it all - pressure canning, water bath canning, hot pack, pickling, salting. You name it, we preserve by it (happy to talk you through any that interest you of course). As for the burned fingers, I strongly recommend a jar lifter - the tool on the left in this picture


7) Canning Tools by British Red, on Flickr

Its used like this


8 Remove Jars by British Red, on Flickr

Sadly it doesn't prevent scalded arms when batch blanching 50lbs of parnips and dumping them in the boiling water too fast whilst wearing a t-shirt