Preserving a bit at a time - Part One

I need to get back to the preserving as my stocks are now quite depleted to what they were.  Unfortunately I have not got the preserving that I had hoped to get done dealt with.  No matter what I have to start somewhere and get back into the habit and the process of preserving.  Something is always better than nothing.

In the past ten days or so I have managed to get about 3 kilos of Blackberries which grew in my garden picked.  I have a few more to pick as yet.

More Blackberries have gone into the freezer from the garden to provide the basis of either puddings for a Winter day and memories of a warm season or to use in jam.  I also intend to make a Blackberry Cheon (syrup).  I am also intend/am planning to go looking for the wild harvest as well in order that I can also bottle up some up Blackberries for later in the year.  The fruit yet again once strained can be used in puddings, the sugar syrup can be turned into a drink or reduced by heat and turned into a sauce or for topping ice cream.  You can also add the syrup to homemade ice cream as you are making to achieve a lovely rippled effect.  I also want some Wild Blackberries to make a couple of bottles of Blackberry/Bramble Whisky. This is absolutely lovely especially on a cold Winter's Day. There is a lot moving forward that needs to be done.  Even if I do not get everything that I aspire to get completed made, at least to start with I will be concentrating on the basics.

However there are other preserves that can be made a little at a time that all play their part in family eating and within the constraints of a family budget.  Most of my ingredients either come from Farm shops, or supermarkets at the moment or direct from small suppliers who advertise on Facebook.

My intention is to try and buy in a few items each week moving forward and concentrate on getting those items out of the way with.  I am choosing basic ingredients that I will actually use as a place to start.

There are different types of preserving, one of these is Freezing which many people do not consider to be preserving per se, but it is. There are lots of other techniques such as Pickles, Chutneys, Jams and Conserves, Jellies, Dehydrating, Ferments, Wines, Ciders and Beer and many more to boot.  Some ingredients are better treated in a specific way as not all techniques suit individual ingredients.

I do have to raid the freezer first though as I have a lot of fruit in there that does need using up.  Most of them will be turned into jams for baking and for toast etc.  I am restricted on freezer space which curtails what I wish to do with what I can actually do. Meat is needed for Christmas and the Winter months, time to stock take on what I actually have.  This is especially true now that we are cycling towards the time of year when I start plotting and planning for Christmas out of necessity for both the Pantry shelf and the pocket.  Yes I mentioned the C word, but you can never start too early for preparing for Christmas.  Less stress this way. I do object to prices going up and premiums being paid for food during the month of December which is one of the reasons I try and get most things sorted by the beginning of December.  It is a tight timeline even though you might think that you have all the time in the world to create and make things.  I am therefore trying to ensure a Christmas dinner of some sort in advance.  The Pantry will be stocked in a similar manner.  I have already made small in-roads on Pantry contents.

For me this is the time to concentrate on meat and some veggies for the freezer which can always be used towards the end of a month when times get a little leaner and pennies become tighter.  The Freezer for me therefore does double duty.  With the meat in the freezer (and sometimes the veg). This ensures a nice hot meal especially with us now starting to gradually transit supposedly towards Autumn and the Winter months.  The time when things are meant to get colder, but bearing in mind the Spring and Summer we have experienced so far, it does make one wonder. Even as I write this post there is apparently another fourth extremely hot period on the way!  We need the cold to kill off the harmful stuff on the land and for nature to progress on her cycle of growth, renewal and dormancy ultimately a time of rest.  The Land and nature need this however it would seem very much at the present that the timing of our seasons seems to be very much changing.

With that in mind I am intend to stock up on the meat and other fronts a bit at a time.  I tend to source joints of meat where I can as these can turn into several good meals just by slicing the meat, putting gravy on it and then you have a meal which just needs the addition of fresh veg to create a quick, nourishing tasty meal during the working week.

To start with I have just bought in six large Lemons at 50p each = £3.00 with beautiful smooth skins and with the addition of some butter and sugar and eggs will turn into Lemon Curd which can be used on toast or in pastries or puddings.  I class Lemon Curd as a short-term preserve for the Pantry shelf.  It is delicious in a sponge cake and can also be used as the base for a Lemon Meringue pie. My intention for this small batch is for immediate use.  Everyone needs a treat somewhere along the line to cheer things up a bit and simple things are often the best. I will though also be making a couple of batches of Lemon curd at the end of November in order that I have a few new batches ready to use for Christmas baking.  Notably in Lemon Curd tarts etc.   This will be one of my Christmas Pantry preserves.  

Home made Lemon curd is far superior to that bought off the supermarket shelf.  I do not like the supermarket versions. Lemon Curd tarts have always been a feature of my life ever since I was little.  Mum always made them as a cheap cake/pastry or alternatively Jam tarts (known as "Schoolboys earholes") in our family due to the fact that the pastry in the tarts can deform/misshapen if the pastry has a little too much moisture in it.

The next on the list will be Tomatoes prepared as sauce, chopped and whole Tomatoes.  There will be several batches of tomatoes bought and processed over the next few weeks. I am keeping the way I am processing the Tomatoes simple and will flavour them up to suit the dish I am making at the time of actual use. My local supermarket has an offer on at the moment with their basic tomatoes at £2 for two packs of six.  I intend to take advantage of this and get a small quantity of each style popped up onto the Pantry shelf.

Apples will be next as I am running out of Apple sauce which is something we use a lot of both to accompany roast pork, or roasted pork sandwiches but also as an egg replacement in baking or in pastries for pies or apple and cream puffs.  I also want some apples for puddings etc.

Then I want to pickle some eggs.  I am planning for Christmas this year to have a choice of different pickles available for the Christmas table as I usually do.  G is fond of pickled eggs and I intend to make a few jars of these for him.  I will buy in a tray of eggs for this purpose on top of my usual two trays of eggs to start those off this month.

During the weeks whilst processing the above items it is quite feasible that one or more Chickens will be eaten or Chicken parts.  I intend to keep any carcasses or bones in the freezer until I have a reasonable collection of bones to process to make Chicken stock which can be processed for the Pantry shelf.  This is an absolute must for homemade soups and gravies out of something that would otherwise be just put in the bin when there is still so much goodness lurking in there.

Vegetable peelings will also be harvested in the same fashion and frozen to make Vegetable stock.  Waste not, Want not!

I am out of onions at the moment which I tend to buy in quantity in a large net. We use a lot of onions and I intend to buy a couple of nets when the pennies are available. The first batch of onion soup will be made then, one of several batches, as well as onion and ale chutney and onion marmalade will all be made.

All the fruit out of the Freezer will then be tackled most likely in jams for baking.  The fruit will be replaced to some degree, yet again for Christmas but the majority of fruit I tend to bottle.

Those are the plans for getting back into the swing of things on the Preserving front for the next few weeks. A limited start, which has the possibility of me being able to get more things than I think is possible at the moment.

We will have to wait and see how things progress.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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