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Gooseberry jelly!Preserve that excess produce

We all aim for bumper harvests but then realise we can't eat it all at once so why not take up the trendy art of pickling, jam making and other methods of preserving and enjoy your crops throughout the winter months

Pickling

Pickles
Pickled fruit and vegetables are a great accompaniment to cold meats, fish and cheese and are quite easy to make. The pickling method basically uses dry salt or brine (salted water) to draw out excess water which would otherwise dilute the vinegar preservative that pickled produce is conserved in. Ideally pickled vegetables should be eaten within six months to a year maximum. Pickled fruit should be eaten within about two months. Store pickles in a cool, dark place.
To really boost your pickles why not spice up your vinegar before use. The spiced vinegar can be made about three hours before you need it. For two litres (four pints) of white vinegar you will need 15g (1¼2oz) stick of cinnamon, 15g (1¼2oz) mace, 15g (1¼2oz) allspice berries, 8g (1¼4oz) peppercorns and 8g (1¼4oz) whole cloves plus two-three bay leaves or couple of peeled garlic cloves.
Put the vinegar in a glass bowl which is placed in a saucepan of water. Put the spices in a muslin bag and suspend in the vinegar. Boil the water in the saucepan so the vinegar is simmering and then take off the heat and cover. Allow to stand for about three hours. Remove the muslin bag and your spiced vinegar is ready. For fruit pickles this mixture is usually sweetened allowing 500g (1lb) sugar and 625ml
(1 pint) vinegar to 11¼2kg (3lb) fruit.

Extras

Preserve your prodce - your views

Check out the KG forum for more on preserving including drying herbs and why not add your own favourite recipes for others to try. Log on to our forum using the links above.

It is easy to take fresh fruit and veg for granted, it is readily available from our plots year round or we can pop to the supermarket at almost any time of the day and night and buy what we want. Our ancestors did not have such luxury. Imagine life without such choice and approaching six months of winter. You would starve unless you made the most of the bumper harvests you have in summer and autumn to store and preserve this food. There seems little point in preserving home-grown produce now but if we don't, we miss out on something rather wonderful. Anyone who has tasted home-made jam bought from a WI stall at a local show will tell you it is head and shoulders above the shop-bought stuff. Home-grown and preserved food can be an incredible taste sensation that you will never experience from mass-produced food. Preserving is now popular again and here we have a taster of what can be done with your excess fruit and veg harvests.

How to preserve
There are many techniques to preserving your fruit and vegetables. One of the most popular is freezing which was covered by Bob Flowerdew in last month's issue of KG so we will concentrate on some other methods you can use. If you wish to start preserving it is highly recommended that you get hold of a good book such as those reviewed on page 80. Some preservation techniques could lead to food poisoning if not carried out correctly.

Drying
This has to be one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Fruit in particular can naturally dry on the tree or on the ground, especially in warm climates and although dried out and chewy, the flesh would nevertheless have been tasty to our ancestors. Although the liquid is removed in the drying process, the flavour and goodness isn't.
A lot of produce can be dried including tomatoes, herbs and plums, chillies, onions (onion rings), peaches and nectarines, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, apples and pears. These can then be used to top breakfast cereals, add to recipes or just eaten as healthy snacks.
In theory you can dry fruit and veg in an oven but it can taken hours and the results are not always ideal as there is poor air movement. If you have an Aga then you are lucky as these usually have a warming oven which is ideal for leaving trays of fruit in to dry over a 24-hour period.
If you intend to do a lot of drying then it would be worth investing in a proper food drier such as the Fruit and Vegetable Drier from Vigo (tel: 01404 890262).

Some veg can be air dried such as chillies. These are best cut lengthways and the seeds removed. You can then string them up by threading some thick cord through a large-eyed needle and simply threading the chillies onto the string. In New Mexico you can see ristras or ropes of dried chillies, made by a similar technique but grouping chillies in threes and braiding them along wire. The strung chillies can be hung in an airing cupboard or warm kitchen to dry thoroughly, turning them occasionally.

 

For more great features, see this month's issue, available to buy online!