Pattypan's Pantry Diary Update Week Ending Sunday 21 August 2022

Monday

More a day for maintenance of projects on the go, including the Orange Wine, the Blackberry Wine, Fermented Garlic and Honey, Drying Bay Leaves, starting the new Sourdough Starter with a view to a Sourdough Loaf of Bread.

Also checked the Orange peel am drying and it seems to be drying well.  It is not quite there, but getting there. 

Then went foraging and came back with a load more Blackberries. I think I have had about 14lb so far this season. These ones are really nice and I intend to bottle these in syrup in my larger canning jars.  I intend to go again tomorrow.

I also had a good look around today to see what else I could locate.  We need the rain but there are crab apples although very small, elderberries, Rowan berries, a few sloes although not many.  There are also some spruces with cones and larch cones.  Need to collect some small twigs for kindling bundles, and also cones.  Also Teasel heads, Queen Anne's Lace stems which have dried.  If you spray them with paint i.e. gold or silver or even white. They can look very attractive as a house decoration quite sculptural.  Also found some Oak trees with Acorns.  Want the Acorns and shells for some table decorating.

Went and bought a few things from the shop.  Came back with two packs of Chicken thighs, some cheese, some eggs, Spinach, Spring Onions.  Not much this time round, but it will go with what I already have in the Pantry and also the fridge.  Will hit the veg shop later in the week and see what I can snaffle there. Will need more eggs.

I still have a few Oranges, Lemons and Apples left to deal with as well as today's Blackberries.  Also have peppers which I want to turn into Sweet Pepper jelly.  Need to get a few Jalapeno's though to mix in with the different coloured peppers.

Tuesday

Found another jar of fruit Vinegar.  This time Blackcurrant and it smells gorgeous.  Prepared it the same way as I prepared the Bramble/Blackberry Vinegar.  I have three full bottles as a result.  It is nice to bring a taste of the summer/autumn into winter cooking.

Blackberries need bottling. Done. Very simple to prepare.  Used a syrup of 8oz of sugar to 1/2 a pint of water.  You bring to boil and boil for 1 minute.  then add another 1/2 pint of cold water which cools the syrup down.  I used warm jars and packed in the blackberries and then added the sugar syrup to the arms of the jar and then water bath processed from time of boiling for 2 minutes.  All the lids have sealed.

Sourdough Starter needs halving and feeding Day 3. Done. Quite a bit of activity. Looking promising.

Garlic and Honey Ferment needs burping.  - Done.  The fizzing is starting to settle down on this.

Orange wine needs stirring. Done.

Blackberry wine needs stirring.  Done.

Have checked on the Orange peel drying on the dresser.  It has now dried and I have bottled it up.

Intend to have a baking session soon as well.

Sorted out a lot more jars and bottles ready for the new preserving season.  I have found all my Sarson jars the long tall ones and they have been stripped out and washed ready to be filled up again soon with pickled onions and pickled shallots.

I am also saving the white vinegar bottles which I had previously been sending to recycling.  As I am making the Orange and Lemon vinegars for cleaning, I decided would keep some of the bottles so that they are ready to get out of the cupboard when needed.

I did not get to blackberrying today as we have had some gentle rain, not much.  It has been very welcome though.  We need tons of gentle rain though to do some good.

Wednesday

Have a lot to do in the kitchen.

I intend to drag the bread machines out and get a couple of loaves on the go and maybe have a go at something different as well.  Quite fancy having a go at some Cinnamon Buns.  Will see how things pan out what with the foraging and then sorting stuff out in the kitchen.

Friday

I have been on a little shopping trip today just to the Greengrocers/our Veg shop.  Have managed to get Plums for Plum jelly and probably apple and plum jam.  Two for the price of one. To me the pulp need using up and so I am combining it with apple to make the most of it. Six punnets of plums sourced for £1 a punnet approximately 6lb.  They are not English but they are plums and I can always do things with plums.

Also sourced approximately 3kg of Tomatoes for £1 a punnet. Going to turn this into Tomato sauce for use in pasta dishes and soups.  It will only produce a little but it will be something.  Shall roast the Toms first before putting it through a mill. Even if I only get a couple of jars (I think there will be a little more than that) at least it will be something.

Have also got hold of a sack of potatoes (a full sack) for £8.  That will arrive on Tuesday and will be delivered to my back door.  One of the owners of the veg shop is very obliging to this "little old lady" and carries the sack down the street to my home.  That indeed is a blessing for me as how I would wrangle it down the street I haven't got a clue.

Having an interesting chat about potatoes again.  The young man who is one of the owners mentioned that although potatoes are going to be pricey this year, the real problem will happen next year.  I suggested "jokingly" that we may well have to grow our own next year and he seriously said that was a good idea.  Farmers are struggling, although many have the land and the nice home, they are not making much to keep things going. Land rich and cash poor. Fertiliser has gone astronomically high and the potatoes need the fertiliser to be put down first on the land to grow otherwise they are like marbles. Also suggested we have our own potato bags as well.

I have also bought another squash, some leeks, a cabbage, a cauliflower, a couple of bulbs of garlic, some carrots and another couple of cobs of sweetcorn and a tray of 30 eggs.  I have some sprouting broccoli and carrots left and another cauliflower and cabbage both of which are favourites here.  I can buy frozen peas.  There is potentially some very nice eating here. If you have a variety of vegetables, you do not need as much meat and you can stretch it out a bit more by using stuffing with a bit of sausage-meat in it, Yorkshire puddings (do not have to have just with Beef) all pad out the meal a bit, and you can freeze them too.  If you make too much stuffing if you have a freezer you can keep it in there, just cut it into strips (I use a flat cake pan for making mine) and then you can drag out a bit of stuffing to go with whatever you are eating at the time.

I also nipped to the Asian shop and bought a big net of onions for £2.  I use a lot of onions and leeks as they give a lot of flavour to a meal. Plans to make an onion relish or marmalade as well in the offing.

I also have apples, lemons and some oranges left to use up.

I am planning on making some more Bramble jelly, and Bottled Brambles in syrup and possibly some Blackberry syrup/cordial if I am lucky enough to find enough.

Am going Blackberrying again this evening.  Anything I can find to help give different tastes and options for the Pantry shelf I will use.  

Update on this foraging trip.  Acquired 9lb of Brambles.  Didn't get to where I was going though.  Maybe another day as there are other items that I could make use of.  A lot of the Brambles which were out when the rain came have died.  Those that had not sprouted but have now have put on a good show and pickings.  There are several bushes so I am picking a few from each bush over a mile area.  There were still loads left but I know other people are foraging these spots too.  Some of these were humungous.  I have plans to make syrup/cordial and also some more Bramble jelly and bottle the rest.  I got to test drive a jar from the previous batch of Jelly and it is lovely even if I do say so myself.  Goes very nicely on toast!  Think it will be lovely with homemade "Scotch" pancakes

Bread hopefully fingers crossed I will be making from next week.  I am lucky enough to have flour in-house which I have previously gathered together. I bought a big bag from #Shipton Mill. I also have lard and butter in the fridge for having a go at making my own pastry and some Stork for cake and cookie making.

At this point, I do consider myself seriously blessed to have so much in a world where many have so little.  We have to make the best of what comes our way.

The honey and garlic ferment has been burped, the Sourdough has been fed, the Bramble wine has been jelly bagged to get rid of the pulp.  Another 2 pints of hot water has been added as has 3lb of sugar everything mixed in and then the yeast added.  It will now be in the fermentation bucket for the next six days after which it will be transferred to a demijohn.  Orange wine has been stirred and that will be transferred to the Demijohn under fermentation lock tomorrow night. Then I can set too and make another flavoured wine.

When I was a child my Grandad (Pop) used to have a jar sat by the fire.  It was his one little treat.  Every week he would buy a quarter of salted roasted peanuts loose in a paper bag off Lincoln market and decant them into the jar by the side of the fire.  He used to share a few with us youngsters and we loved them they always tasted so different to any others we had.  This week I have bought a couple of bags of the Co-Ops Honest Value range for 90p a bag.  Hadn't had them before decanted them into a suitable jar yesterday and tried them today.  They were just like those my Granddad (Pop) used to give us.  Perhaps they need to be in a jar to make the difference.  I am well chuffed and will buy another couple of bags in a couple of weeks.  Want to get a little supply stocked up.  Jar is labelled with BBF date as well. 

Saturday

Not much done on the preserving front today.  I did however go out  Blackberrying again.  Have come back with  another 3 1/2lb.  Tomorrow is Bottling Day for the Blackberries.  I have quite a bit to bottle up.  Fortunately, I have already sorted out the Bottles/jars I am going to use.

Sunday

I had planned on putting the Orange wine into the Demijohns. Unfortunately, I was not happy with some of the Demijohns as some of the grime had not come off and so I put them back into soak again.   I have got them clean and I have now planned to transfer the bucket contents to the Demijohn for the two gallons of Orange wine and intend to make more in due course.  It is frothing well and so I think will be quite a lively ferment in the Demijohns.  The Bramble wine is frothing well too.  That has another five days in the bucket yet.

The time table for the week  at the moment is therefore as follows but will probably need updating as matters move along.

	Preserving Chores Week commencing 21.08.2022
Day	Project
Sunday	Need to Bottle Blackberries.
	Need to make Blackberry/Bramble Syrup
	Need to make a further batch of Bramble and Apple jelly
	Need to put Orange wine into Demijohns to work out.  Two gallons.
	Make a new batch of wine. Elderflower?
	Feed Ginger Beer Plant.
	Feed Sourdough Starter.
	Stir Bramble/Blackberry wine.
	Start off Plum Jelly.
Monday	Make pancakes from discard from Sunday evening discard feed for breakfast.
	Make first Sourdough Bread Loaf.
	Finish off Plum Jelly.
	Make Sweet Pepper Jelly.
	Feed Ginger Beer Plant.
	Feed Sourdough Starter.
	Stir Bramble/Blackberry Wine.
	Save Discard from Sourdough Starter.
Tuesday	Something Sourdough for Breakfast.
	Process Tomatoes.  Not sure if going to be bottled Tomatoes of Pasta Sauce yet or not.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday	Bramble/Blackberry wine needs to go into the Demijohn
Saturday
Sunday	Make Ginger Beer

 

Future Plans

In view of the fact that energy prices are going up quite high this year I am going to be making my Christmas cake and Christmas puddings that much earlier. Then I can store them under the stairs until Christmas. It is cooler under the stairs than in my main Pantry which is more of a dry Larder. It is not very cold and so I do not keep veggies in here.

I also intend to reinstate the bake day once a week to make things to eat during the course of the week. A little baking helps oil the wheels. I am thinking more at the minute about fruit tea breads that can be cut and sliced, spread with a little butter and enjoyed with a cup of tea. Parkin is another good one too.

I also have a fantastic bulk cake recipe which I have been using since the children were at home (that was 30+ years ago).. Will definitely have to revive that one.

Bulk cake mix

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x