Preserves made 2021 so far Part One

Herewith is a pruned list of some of the Preserves I have managed to make this year.  I have had to prune it down because of the photos and commentary. I will add extra posts to show the other preserves all done and dusted.  Just thought it would be kinder this way on. I shall add these to the Putdown List for the year and hopefully will go on to extend my Pantry Preserves both by Pressure Canning and lots of other preserves including Pickles, Chutneys, Dried items, Wines, Beers, Drinks, etc. etc.

Pickled Beetroot 

I had bought two bunches of beetroot with about five medium sized beets in each bunch.  I have managed to get two jars out of this small batch.  I will add further amounts to my stock bit by bit at this time of the year.  Beetroot is something we use a lot of.  This is a preserve you can do a little bit here and there with and slowly build your stock up.

Plum Jam

A good all rounder for the pantry shelves.  Indeed, apples and plums seem to be very much loved base ingredients for my pantry shelf as there is so much you can do with them.  I managed to get seven jars of Plum jam.  If I can get more plums during the week I will make some Plum jelly as well, and if I can get enough (reduced ones) will also do some Plum and Apple.  Very good for baking the jams and the jellies use the same but also use in stir fries and sauces etc.

Jumbleberry Mixed Fruit Jam  

This is called Jumbleberry jam as it literally uses a mixture of different berries.  There are blackberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, Redcurrants and Blackcurrants in this mixture which was out of the freezer.  As I used 3kgs worth of fruit in total (I added four large cooking apples to make sure the mixture set, and also the juice of half a lemon and a little water only for the apple which I cooked first. It is a good jam to make use of the odds and ends. The mixture does foam a lot but I have found that a little butter helps get rid of this.  This is one of the quicker recipes to set and you have to keep a watch on it.  The recipe is simple 1kg fruit 1kg of sugar. This is one of my favourite jams to have of a morning with either toast or Croissants.  It is sweet and sour, deeply purple and I think glorious.  It is also good in cakes, pastries , puddings (trifle), Mille Feuilles with either fresh whipped cream and jam or buttercream and jam, scones with cream, etc.  I used 3kg of fruit and 3kg of Sugar and I have 16 jars of lovely jam for my efforts.  Highly chuffed with this.  One jar I have kept to one sid as I ran out of lids.  I prefer lids for my preserves and not the traditional wax tops and cellophane wrappers.  I have found in practice that if you keep jam in this way for any length of time it dries out the preserve and you end up losing a precious commodity.  So no cellophane covers for me.

Dried Spinach

I am slowly building up my green powder stocks which this is primarily for.  However I am going to leave some of it whole and then add it to pasta dishes especially Lasagna, otherwise it will be added to curries, stews, casseroles, soups, gravies etc.

Dried Kale

Yet again for use with pasta dishes, green powders usage the same as for the Spinach.  Leaving some of it whole again as well as grinding some down for powders.

Dried Salad Leaves and Dried Rocket Leaves

I think this is going to be an ideal way to use up the leaves that are going to seed in the garden this year.  I have not ground any of the leaves down into powder as yet as have been using the leaves whole, but they can soon be ground down.

Dried Chives

Always useful on the flavouring front especially with egg dishes.

Dried Mixed Veggies

For the pantry shelf to add in to soups, stews, casseroles, gravies etc.

Dried Asparagus

In the dehydrator to be used in soups, and home made Risotto mixes etc.  Had a lovely simple bought mix recently which was lovely and also thinking of drying some petit-pois peas to accompany it.

Dried Bay Leaves

I have a load of these in the dehydrator at the moment.  Use in gravies, sauces, meat curing.

Lemon Marmalade

All prepped up and left to soak overnight for making into marmalade tomorrow.

Lemon Jelly Marmalade

OH prefers no bits in Marmalade so I am doing a Lemon and Orange version for him.  He only has a little.

Seville Orange Marmalade

All prepped up and left to soak overnight for making into marmalade tomorrow.

Looks as though tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.

Dried Flowers

Purely by chance I had the Daffodils I purchased the other week dry out in their vase.  On closer inspection the flower heads looked more or less intact and looked pretty.  As collecting base materials for home made pot-pourri is on the list to do this year, I have taken the flower heads off and will put these in a storage jar to use later on.  Not for eating at all, but ideal to pop on top of a bowl of home made pot-pourri.

Tomorrow I may get some more Daffodils. (since done another couple of bunches to potentially get the dried flower heads from). They are so cheerful at this time of year and hopefully this next lot will dry out so that I can put them up for home made pot-pourri as well.  Waste Not Want Not.

So quite a lot already done and quite a lot in preparation.

I had to spend two hours earlier on stripping the cooker down and making it presentable again, ready for the next batch.

I really am enjoying the dehydrating.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x