Catch up

No I have not emigrated just up to my neck and more at the moment with the preserving. 

Apologies for not blogging much at the minute as I am up to my eyes in preserving.  We have tomatoes on the go at the moment being bottled in my new to me vintage dual purpose Kilner jars. They are wider necked/mouthed than the newer jars.  you can use the jars with Leifheit gaskets which fit the original Kilner jar rings but you can also get the Leifheit

rings.  I prefer these jars as they are wider necked/mouthed and make it easier to get whole tomatoes in, pears, plums and other larger fruit.

I get mine predominantly from P D Headley of

http://www.preservingjarparts.co.uk/

he sells vintage jars and also will restore the rings.  He also sells on Ebay.

This is a packed jar just before it goes into the preserving pot.  Seems to be packed tight. 

They do shrink a bit however and look as though they are at half mast.  might chop them up for a much tighter pack next time.

So far nine jars of whole tomatoes 8 in the picture but I could not get in the other one.  Has been processed in a separate batch. They also have thyme and basil in them.  I  have just started on the cherry tomatoes and then there are the Italian plum tomatoes. I also have oven roasted tomato pasta sauce on the go as well. Went to the market and got them all at a good price.  Will probably pop back during the week for more. We use tinned tomatoes at least a couple of times a week and this in effect is what the tomatoes are.  I used citric acid and salt in the mix and the recipe book I have says that when it comes to use them if the tomatoes are a little tart add a little sugar.  I tend to do that anyway when cooking with tomatoes so its no big thing.

Plus I have Victoria plums to bottle in syrup and a batch of jam - there are about 5kgs in total and some Greengages for Greengage jam and jelly.  Fraid its full steam ahead at the moment literally - I am using my Bielmeir pot for the bulk processing - me and it are getting introduced to each other and I am learning about what it does and does not like.

I was given extra greengages yesterday as the veg shop are on holiday.  In previous years as they are a large family I have slipped them a couple of jars of chutney etc. and they quite like my efforts.  Mum in particular Joan was talking about her favourite chutney being Tomato and Apple.  She mentioned you cannot buy it and I had not seen a recipe.  However I have since located one in a new to me book so I think some of that will be made.  They quite frequently knock of a bit here and there as I buy such a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.  So its a win win situation.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

x

NB;

I have not forgotten about instructions for bottling just bear with - in the middle of a post about which I am trying to make user friendly and am not totally happy with result so far but it is work in progress and hopefully there will be some photos as well.