TARRAGON & THYME

 Tuesday Night After our lovely tea last night I did pop back into the kitchen.  I have found some more Kilner jars and so wanted to get those scrubbed in advance of the marathon preserving session I have planned over the next few days or so. I therefore did not get to deal with the Plums.  That is definitely on the cards for tomorrow and I have already made up 2 pints of a light sugar syrup which is residing in the fridge in readiness to get on first thing in the morning. I have managed to get an awful lot of stuff back where it belongs which I am pleased about.  Still a lot to do but time to get the preserving on and then do bits inbetween.  It is going to be a busy day tomorrow as I plan going to Home Bargains to get topped up with cleaning stuff including soap powder, to keep me stocked up for the next six weeks or so.  The weather this evening has been wet, damp and cold.  Definitely autumn in the air and although we have not had the best of summe...

 For a very good reason.  I am very eager to encourage people to preserve their own food and to stock up their Pantry storage wherever possible.  A couple of my followers on Instagram had asked how I did basic water-bathing and so I wrote up the two preceding posts.  I am not sure I have covered everything but I think it will be enough to give you a start it is very difficult to synthesise and cram everything I have learned over the years in. So apologies for the length of the main article but I did condense it as much as I can. A lot of the recipes and instructions on the Internet tend to come from America and come under their jurisdiction and rules. However their recipes vary a great deal to ours.  There has always been a healthy "Bottling" Brigade in this country.  For a while after Freezers came in this declined somewhat but with the costs of energy prices people are going back towards the more traditional household skills of which a prime one is P...

Monday I know it is the Bank Holiday, I Just did not get to it today.  I wrote a couple of posts earlier on, and sort of got bogged down with that.  Took me a bit longer than I had anticipated.  It is what it is. I shall reconvene on the list again tomorrow. There is an awful lot to do.  However, due to OH allergic reaction to washing up it looks as though that is going to be doubtful.  So I may end  up sorting that out before I can do anything else. Plus I need to go shopping tomorrow for cleaning stuff and maybe a quick visit to Waitrose as there are some little bits and bobs that are needed for the Pantry. Tuesday It has been colder here today and I have retreated into one of my sweatshirts and a pair of housework jeans to try and tackle the kitchen.  Going to be in here most of the day and evening.  It is going to be a quick tea this evening, Beefburgers. I hate bought Beefburgers from the likes of certain companies because they put so much mu...

Please note the timing is for Blackberries only.  Other fruits have various times.  The process though is pretty much the same. Gather together your deep stock pot, tea towel, pair of oven gloves and a jug, if you have them a pair of jar lifters.  Get everything together so that you do not have to go looking for stuff whilst you are working on your water-bathing. Get your jars sterilised either in a hot oven or a pot of hot water.  Once sterilised allow to go cold.  For cold pack really this needs to be sorted first.  I used pint jars the other day when I made my Blackberries and I used about 1.5 kg of Blackberries.  Also sterilise your lids in a small pan of hot water. Make up your preferred syrup - I usually use a light syrup made up of 8oz of sugar to 1/2 a pint of hot boiling water.  Stir the sugar until dissolved.  Then take off  the cooker away from heat and add in 1/2 a pint of cold water which will help it cool down.  I am u...

Water bathing is not difficult and you do not need any specialist equipment.  You can get by with a very deep stockpot, a tea towel or a trivet and some recycled jars and lids. You do however in the long term if you are going to carry on with water bathing need a set of jar lifters for safety reasons.  This will help you manoeuvre the jars in and out of the water bath. The way they are pictured is the way that they are used. Also long term you will need a funnel. Let me start at the beginning. This is not all the information associated with water bathing but I think the most relevant. There are two types of jar you can use for preserving.  The specialist preserving jar which is normally (although not always) a two part lid, with a disc and an outer ring.  These are usually Ball jars or indeed Kilner jars. They are usually more expensive.  There are also Weck jars and Le Parfait jars which use rubber seals. This is a standard 250ml jam jar/Lug jar.  or ...

Things started off quite nicely this morning with us having a bacon and mushroom sarnie for breakfast.  Temperatures had dropped overnight and we have very much had that "Autumn" feeling today with the temperatures being a lot lower than they have been.  Therefore time to make the best of the seasons and harvests and preserve them for another day. Today I had planned to do a lot of preserving.  Silly me thinking that I would be able to indulge my passion and just play.  It did not turn out like that. I ended up looking for something on the computer that G just must have; three hours later I managed to find what he was looking for and able to put that one to bed! I had planned on processing Apples (for Apple sauce), Tomatoes for Pasta sauce, Cherry tomatoes for Bruschetta and Beetroot (for pickled Beetroot) today.  Instead I went to the shop a little later in the day and came back with a load of plums.  Not Victoria plums but they were on offer.  I have...

Last night I set too and made some Rhubarb and Strawberry pie filling for the Pantry shelf loosely using the recipe on Healthy Canning Recipe link here:  Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie Filling   For my efforts I managed to produce 7 pints of Pie filling.  I did not use thickener in this (and as a result some of the juice is segregating in the jars) but will thicken up the mixture with some Arrowroot once I have decided what the final recipe for the jar is going to be and vary the thickening as required.  When I learned to cook at school many years ago it was common for pastry flans to be made with fresh fruit and then the syrup from the fruit used to be thickened up with Arrowroot to give the mixture some form but also a lovely glaze.   The beauty of mixes like these is that you can always use them on your breakfast cereal as well i.e. with Muesli, Granola, with some yogurt. I am quite pleased with how these have turned out and as I have still a load more Rhuba...

Friday Night I carried on with the kitchen last night, but am getting nowhere fast. I  managed to get some more blackberries not very many, but we intend to go on Saturday at some point to try and get some more. I have 8 jars out of a possible 9 (on checking all 9 have sealed and they all held when I elevated them by the seal) of Blackberries in syrup put by so far which I am very pleased with. All the jars have been cleaned up.  Now just need to label them and put them away. We do need a few more though and I have also a couple of other variations that I would like to get put up as well. Blackberry season this year does not seem as prolific as last year's harvest. I also would like to get Elderberries, as I wish to make some Pontack sauce and also some Elderberry jelly and maybe some Elderberry wine. As I have said I also have Lemon syrup and Blackberry syrup started.  I do need to add more Blackberries as I ran out after starting it hence the reason for going again some...

 my stint in the kitchen I set too, to use the Blackberries up from our walk yesterday.  Think we are going back later on to see if we can get any more berries.  Found a patch that had not been touched, but obviously someone has found where we had been going as there were not many for the picking tonight.  Never mind, there is enough there to make some syrup. All you need is some a large wide mouthed jar if possible, some sugar and your berries. Basically you layer up the Blackberries with layers of sugar, and then you pop your lid on.  This is a form of fermentation just using the sugar, fruit and the natural yeasts on the fruit.  You can use any jar, but if you use a jar with a jam jar type lid, you will need to physically burp the jar if not every day every other day as gas will build up in the jar and we do not want any explosions thank you very much.  You are supposed to leave it 100 days, but in reality the fermentation may have settled down befo...

 Not the back room as anticipated but the bathroom.  OH has decided he is moving on in there to paint.  Just decided did not discuss and then expects the fairies have come in overnight. However, before he can do this, I need to clear part of the bathroom in any event so that he can do this properly. Far be it for me to hold him up. I am therefore sorting this so he can get stuck in again. I managed to get part of the bathroom cleared and scrubbed down with some old fashioned elbow grease and a bucket of hot soapy water so that G can get on.   Then I will be in the kitchen which is also going to be scrubbed out (whilst everything is upside down).  Might as well get it all done and dusted in one fair swoop. I then have a load of ironing to do once the kitchen is sorted.  I hate ironing, but I always see it as a discipline and make sure that I always do it properly.  I usually put the radio on whilst I deal with the piles.  I am eager for him to...

 Ended up being circumvented again by another issue which has prevented me getting on in the dining room.  Might try and get in there a bit later on.  These things are sent to try us so changed tack and decided to cook a full roast this evening. We are having roast chicken, sausage, roast potato and roast onion, broccoli, cauliflower, Petit-Pois, mashed potato and carrots for tea this evening.  Scratch meals are all well and good, however I do like to have a proper cooked meal every few days or so.  Just my thing. I went over to the local supermarket and was very disappointed in the choice of vegetables they had to hand.  Although they had no Broccoli on the shelf, I did find a couple of packs in the reduced section. I quickly nabbed them.  Carrots there was only one pack on the shelf so I nabbed them also. Frozen Petit-Pois were in for a change.  I prefer them as I think they are little more tender than the garden peas. Oh and a packet of reduced...

I have spent most of the day in the dining room.  Sorting out stuff I no longer need.  Still loads to go, but am pleased to say that I am making slow and steady progress. Which is a relief.  I am going to continue on into the evening to get as much done as I can today.  Tomorrow will then reconvene and carry on.  It feels good to be getting somewhere at long last, as I had been very fed up about lack of progress, not just on this front but generally. I have found a load of stuff that is to go into my Pantry as well, after it has been re-configured slightly.  If the weather is good tomorrow, I shall get that all washed up, and outside in the fresh air to dry.  Some of the items are wooden boxes used for storing stuff in so a good wash and brush up will do no harm and letting it dry naturally will be best all around. No preserving today.  Will probably be making chicken stock on Thursday.  We have round one of our meal out of the chicken tomorr...

I continued on from yesterday to wade downstairs in the dining room, sorting out a load of stuff that is long overdue tackling.  Progress is slow, painfully slow but it is being made.  Alongside that whilst I am working away I am processing stuff for the Pantry shelf.  Today it has been Ham Stock and Chicken Stock.  I have four good sized jars of Ham Stock for the Pantry Shelf, and 6 jars of Chicken Stock.  I have Chicken and a Gammon on a regular basis therefore it is false economy not to use what is available to you.  The processed stock will provide a good base for some good eating during the winter months, such as for stews, soups, casseroles, gravies.  I also have plans to do some vegetable Stock and Beef Stock in due course. The only mention I would make is that if the base ingredients tend to be "saltier" do not add any extra salt.  Gammon because of the preservation process tends to be saltier despite soaking overnight and changing water a...

 I find that somehow or the other if someone sets a deadline that is when I go all to pieces and that's when everything goes to pot.  Do not set a deadline and I get on quite quickly with things under normal circumstances.  Have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks which is going to be a killer and then fit everyday living things in as well.  There we are, tiz only the depth that varies as I keep telling everyone. Today I have been in the dining room having a bit of a sort out.  Well shall we say an initial sort out.  It will be a work in progress and two of the boxes in there are for the Pantry so they will shift once the Pantry has been done which hopefully will be very shortly Some stuff is going to be thinned out and moved on as well. Some will be sold, by various formats, some will go to the Charity shops as I really need to thin things down a bit in order to move forward. I am going to have to be quite ruthless with myself (this is not going to...