What are you preserving?

[Disabled Preppers]

Well been in the garden and just collected another good bush of wild/alpine strawberries and some lovely big ones from the strawberry beds wife is a happy camper , we got a huge amount of red currants in to and my pink currant is just starting blush with colour of the berries i am going to try them straight off the bush as they are meant to be sweet we shall see ,just weeded the leeks and loving my egypian onions new to me this year and the welsh onions have huge seed heads on i will bag the heads for the seed , the wife took one of the small egypian onions of the little bulblet and ate it and said wow very oniony so will be great either pickled or thrown in stews .
Tomorrow all being well is weeding day yup hands and knees crawling around the garden , i love the raised beds just sit on the coping and do the wrok but i guess the ground veg patch is fun you get to crawl in the dirt yup and it is good therapy all be it a back ache and knees but so relaxing

 

[Woody girl]

Just made some pickled water melon rind. It looks so pretty in the jar. I can't wait to try it.

 

[Woody girl]

4 ,1/2 jars of tayberry jam.
Pan intact again! No burning. I'm getting good at this! (Famous last words!)

 

[Toddy]

Rhubarb and Strawberry crumble/pie filling

We have a glut of rhubarb and strawberries and there's only so much jam we will use. The mix in the Kilner jars isn't so sugary either, and it's awfully good for puddings

 

[Woody girl]

S

Rhubarb and Strawberry crumble/pie filling

We have a glut of rhubarb and strawberries and there's only so much jam we will use. The mix in the Kilner jars isn't so sugary either, and it's awfully good for puddings

So how do you preserve the pie filling?
I have a ton more tayberries ripening, loads of rhubarb and blackcurrants comming along, and I too have more than enough jam. I'd like to make pie fillings, but have no freezer, otherwise I'd freeze them.
I guess water bath canning isn't an option is it? You say it's in kilner jars, so I'm guessing you are pressure canning it maybe?
I don't have one of those, so looking for a way to preserve these things that isn't jam. Pie filling seems a great idea.

 

[Toddy]

Clean and cut up the rhubarb. Weigh it and cover it in about half it's weight in sugar. Let is sit until the juices run. Then add cleaned strawberries, I usually cut them in half. You can add whatever proportion you like, the rhubarb seems to be acidic enough not to need any lemon juice added. I ended up pretty much even weight on the rhubarb and strawberries though.
I don't add anymore sugar.

I heat it all up, make sure the sugar is dissolved, and then hot pack it into kilner jars and seal with discs and rims.
I use the 500ml size, and I get three of them into the pressure cooker at a time.
I bring it up to 15lbs pressure then just turn the heat off. I let it sit warm to cool down, an then lift the jars out onto a rack to cool right down.

I have 15 jars made and not a dodgy seal among any of them. The left over juice I canned too, but there was a wee bit left, not enough to fill a jar, so I just made that into jelly for trifle. It is lovely, lovely stuff

Sweet and fruity, but not overly sweet, more fruity. I worked really well with gluten free shortcake in the trifle

M

 

[Toddy]

I don't have a specialised pressure canner. I have a standard domestic pressure cooker.
I've used one all my married life. It's a useful big pot apart from the pressure aspect of it.

I think pie filling done by waterbath would be fine. I'd just pack it hot, and I'd keep a careful eye on the jars until I was certain that they weren't going to ferment.

Unlike the screaming hyperbole of some American preppers, we know that we don't get botulism in jams that kill hundreds of us. Their hysterical youtube offerings are just blasts to raise views and really ought to be both challenged and removed as lies.

In the rare occasions that might develop mould on bread, on cheese, on jam, it can be removed and the rest of the food safely eaten.....we've done it for centuries and it hasn't killed anyone yet. The only instances of botulism deaths in the UK were from canned meat (mostly imported) and a dodgy one from mushroom soup.

 

[Woody girl]

Pressure cookers scare the bejeezus out of me! I've never used one, I can still remember one my mother was using hissing away so loud , then there was some sort of erruption, mother screaming, it's exploded!!! and food all over the kitchen, it scared me so much, she couldn't use one when I was around. I think I was about 2 or 3 yrs old. Scarred me for life!!!

 

[Toddy]

It's a tool, it's a very good and very useful tool.

If you can't work a pressure cooker, then save your money because that's all a big pressure canner is.
A shame you can't use one, but well, just work with it. You have to figure out water bath canning and push the limits
I mean, I don't pressure can jam, and it lasts for years, so it's not a necessity for everything.

M

 

[Woody girl]

It's not that I can't use one, I think if I had a friend who knew how to use one, hold my hand,and keep me calm, I'd be nervous, but it would get done.
I just start panicking when I hear that hiss, and have to leave the room. Stupid, but it made a real deep impression on me that's here to this day, and starts a panic attack. I even get it when I'm stood on the pavement and a lorry or buse's brakes hiss close by me.
I know..wimp!
But I'm happy to absail off the top of a tall building..despite being scared of heights. (Must admit to jelly legs as I go over the top tho )
I must gather my trouser legs..if I wore a dress it would be skirts.. and try, ....one day!

I made more fruit leather this weekend. Wild raspberries and wild strawberries. Smells wonderfull, tastes like heaven!

 

[Toddy]

Maybe if someone explained it clearly to you, helped you understand the hiss etc., would that help ?

Happy to write out every wee hiss and spit and rattle if you think it might

M

 

[Woody girl]

Maybe if someone explained it clearly to you, helped you understand the hiss etc., would that help ?

Happy to write out every wee hiss and spit and rattle if you think it might

M

Hmmm, think I'll pass, many thanks for the offer! I need to be able to run away, and have someone deal with any mishaps untill I get less terrified!!!!!

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Sorry its been a while folks- there a little person in my house now and it's taken some time to get into a good routine.

My first preserves of the year, lingonberry and bilberry jam- frozen from last season, the bilbs were actually left over from a delicious gin liqueur.



Also some linden/lime flower and apple mint dehydrated for tea

 

[Woody girl]

Tayberry fruit leather, two trays worth, and two jars of wild raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant and tayberry pie filling. Water bath canned with a bit of citric acid for surety.
Pear, and star anise fruit leather tomorrow. A "pearing" made in heaven.

 

[SaraR]

Hmmm, think I'll pass, many thanks for the offer! I need to be able to run away, and have someone deal with any mishaps untill I get less terrified!!!!!

You need to arrange a visit to someone who has one and can do it for you in return for a jar or two, or something else.

 

[Toddy]

@Woody girl

It really is easy. The hiss is the safety valve blowing excess pressure (steam) out so that it can't 'blow up'.
I have no idea how your Mum managed to 'blow it up' unless she twisted the lid off while there was still pressure within. All that happens then is that the food sort of goes 'bloop' and splashes around. It doesn't blow up per se, it just sort of expands.

If it's scaring you, just turn off the heat and walk away. It'll cool down, lose pressure and settle just fine.

 

[Woody girl]

I don't know what happened, I was too young, but I do know there was a bang, and food was on the ceiling and all over the kitchen, mother yelling blue murder, and me, sitting at the table in total panic! Too late to ask what actually happened now. Maybe a gasket blew or something. ?
She had some strange ideas, and actualy put my new hand knitted nylon jumper under the grill to dry it, and managed to set it on fire!
It's a wonder I survived my childhood!

 

[bushwacker bob]

I picked all the green walnuts I could reach to prevent the entire crop being stolen by the grey squirrels again. I dont have the time or inclination to do anything with them so took them to my friend at the local W.I to pickle them. I will no doubt recieve a jar or two as thanks.

 

[Woody girl]

Local chip shop donated me one pickled egg jar, and two pickled gherkin jars. I've done some preserved lemons in the egg jar, wondering what to do with the gherkin jars. I do have large jars for pickled onions already, and hate pickled eggs, so won't be doing them at all. No walnut trees about, so any suggestions out there of things i might pickle?
I already do sauerkraut, and kimchi. It seems a waste to not use these jars.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

I see you folk preserve lots of berry and fruit. Up here we don't do so much but we are air drying moose meat and smoking dry fish - I'm don't know what you call this fish in English.
we dry or smoke meat by cutting long thin threads of meat and hanging it out of reach of critters. The air here is much drier than I noticed in your country.