Them jars them jars - they are not jamjars

I have been a lot better pain wise today although its raining again tonight.  I have only just got in from an evening out so this is a little bit of a quick post.

I have been into town today intent on getting a couple of jars for sourdough starters and also more liqueur type drinks for the pantry shelf.  I bought four large tall Kilner gasket preserving jars for this purpose.  I have Cherry Brandy, Strawberry Vodka, some more Raspberry to prepare.  I also want to do a mixed fruit one at some point.

I also have two bottles of brandy and two of rum to use.  The brandy I intend to use for a fruit based liqueur which is referred to as Batchelor's Brandy and the Rum for Rumptopf.  I will post separate posts on these for those of you wanting to have a go.

I also want to get to grips with the wine making.  Will probably get some elderflower on the go weather permitting this weekend and probably some Elderflower fizz.

However whilst in town I came across the Kilner canning/bottling jars at £1.25 each and ended up with 8 of them everything that they had on the shelf for that size.  So pretty chuffed.  I will add these to my stash.  You can never have too many jars no matter what the type.  Another good place is TK Maxx for preserving jars in packs or singly.  I regularly go and check out what they have and I mean really silly prices including the Quattro Staggioni preserving jars.  The 0.5ltr smaller jars the Kilner rings and seals will fit.  The Quattro Staggioni jars you can get replacement lids for but they are a whole lid and are somewhat expensive plus you cannot always source the replacement lids easily.

I then went into John Lewis and found some more jars there - some celebratory Kilner jars the old style jar with a metal lid instead of a glass one commemorating their 100th anniversary.  However because of the three bags I had and my handbag I could not manage them so I will be popping in there on Friday lunchtime to purchase some of the same.  I also need a few of the smaller glass lidded Kilner gasket jars for fridge preserves the type I am after are ideal for pate or home made fridge preserves.  I aim to have a little stock of these in hand for Christmas this year probably well before then say for September which for me really is the month when things go haywire on the preserving front.

I also aim to bottle a lot of fruit this year and make fruit sauces for pouring over ice cream etc. amongst other things.  I also need to sort out my jam store and recycle some of the jars in there which are past their best before date.  You always end up with one or two stragglers no matter how hard you try. 

I will try and pop up a list of some of the books I use for preserving and which are very useful.  Probably more for the variety of recipes they contain.  Obviously some books have similar recipes for things like marmalade or Strawberry jam but some of them have some really special recipes and dare I say different.  However I personally believe that people do not make their own preserves because they really do not know how to use up "such a large quantity" of any one preserve or in fact how to use the preserves.  I have some ideas on this too and perhaps that will make a post in itself as well.

Some of the books are not in print but you may be lucky enough to obtain copies from some of the cheapie book shops.

Right am off and up the wooden stairs to Bedfordshire.  Sleep tight everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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