~Don't ask for lemon butter~

Well since our new rental property has NO available growing space (ok so there might be a smidge but it's kid chaos in the garden), I've decided to take up preserving ("canning" in the US and "bottling" in the UK) to hopefully take some of that itch away.

So far it's not really working.. I'm enjoying bottling ALOT but there is no substitute for getting my hands dirty in cool loamy soil and planting out the first seedlings of Spring. Smelling the warm fragrant air, knowing that in a few months time I'll be overrun with zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, beans, shallots, herbs, lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot, potatoes etc etc etc!!! We never got overrun with starwberries but we'd at least get about 250g per day for a month. That was nice. Plus a few experimentals..


Here in the new nest.. it's... well... in the bush (trees/wilderness). So even if I did grow anything it would be quickly devoured by possums or bandicoots. They'd either eat them or sit on them. Grrrr!

Our garden is NOT a place of tranquility as there's a 10ft retaining wall of climbable boulders at the rear going up onto the private road. I have boys. Climbers. Clever climbers. Oh help me!

Anyway, so I'm getting stuck into the food production side for a year at least.









6 ft leeks that were at the market for $1.50 each! LOVE leek soup so I chopped and froze them. Too bad I sold that tucker box freezer..

Lately I've been Strawberry Jaming. Because I have small kiddies, I like to do the recipes that have stages so I can stagger out the work and not ruin anything because of kids underfoot.


Here we have batch 1 and 2. Aka Strawberry Jam with bits and .. er... Strawberry Jam.
Batch 1 was 1.5kilos of strawberries (sliced and sat over night with sugar in fridge). Cooked with a packet of vacola jamsetta, juice of one lemon (there for the taste not the pectin) plus a knob of butter at the end to disperse any scum. YUM! Thanks Delia.

Batch 2 was 1.5kilos (smooshed and sat over night in sugar in fridge) with juice of 1 lemon and no pectin. Without that Jamsetta it took longer to reach setting stage. In comparison I thought this was too cooked. It lost that lovely fresh zing and was darker in colour.
Knob of butter at the end.

My cupboard!

 From left to right we have: Hickson mandarin marmalade (didn't set but tastes sooo gooood!), Murcot mandarin marmalade (set. nice.), Piccalilli by the book, Piccalilli without electric scales (curried piccalilli actually tastes really yum too!), Batch 1 Strawberry Jam (the best one).

Below we have the bums so you can see the deliciousness. On the far right is a small sample jar from Batch 3 Strawberry Jelly Jam;

(ran out of time, sat in fridge for two nights so s.berries got almost dehydrated with the sugar sucking the juice out of them so they didn't cook down to mush. Then I had 2kilos of fruit and added 2 packets of Jamsetta so it's rather... jelly like. It's not conventional but oh my Gosh! the flavour is so there!)

So to tally up I have(Large jars are size 20 Vacola, approx 540g):

3 large jars Apple sauce (ok it was supposed to be apple pie filling but processed it wrong and had to re-cook it. YUM!)
5 med jars Piccalilli - by the book
6 large jars Curry Piccalilli
6 large jars Strawberry jam (1 each of Batch 1+2 and 4 of Batch 3 the Jelly Jam - yuuuuUUUm)
5 small Marmalade jars (1 Murcot, 4 Hickson)
EDITED TO ADD:
2 large jars wild plum jam
3 large jars pickled onions

Not to forget the fridge:
3 large jars of Strawberry jam, one of each batch
1 large Murcot Mand. Marmalade
1 small Murcot Mand. Marmalade
1 Piccalilli by the book

So! My strawberry jam tips:

• Use Jamsetta as you keep that lovely fresh flavour and appearance of the fruit as you're not having to boil it for very long (maybe 16mins or less).
• Do batches of 1.5kg at a time
• Add juice of one lemon for flavour, it really compliments the strawberry. Then a knob of butter at the end, also for flavour
• If you do the slicing the fruit and leaving over night in sugar method then don't leave it any longer and smoosh that fruit once it's in the pan.

Happy Jamming!

P.s. We stripped the lemons off our tree before moving.. how silly of me to think I'd have time to make lemonade and lemon butter. We gave lots away and the rest spoilt because of my optimism in having time in a new home. So don't ask for lemon butter.. there is NONE!

August - more-ish

Ok so here's the most beautiful thing that happened in August (well, this year!). Meili and Sam got married.

http://emmykstone.blogspot.com/

This little boy was very shy and waited for quite some time watching his Meili being photographed before he had the chance to give her a temple garden picked posy.

Sorry... I know! So totally inappropriate to put these two subjects together... (sorry sorry sorry) BUT there's nothing more refreshing than the smell of brining vegetables. HONESTLY! It smells like fresh air.

 Here's the mix after having the salt washed and washed and washed out. Then cooked up in spice, sugar and vinegar mix.

 Piccalilli cooling and popping while I get the apple pie filling ready to bottle up. It ended up being apple sauce as I didn't know you had to process them straight away in the Vacola unit so I had to cook them up and re-sterilise all the jars before processing them again. Still... loving the apple sauce! I have it on good authority from my friend Sarah and her extended family that it's super delicious! (Glad it's not just one of those things you love because you were fed it all you're life!).

Here's the one good photo of me in years. It's likely to be a while before I post another pic of myself! I'm not the type to make my face the subject of my blog entries (so conceited when people do that!). Food is so much more interesting!

Don't I just make those braces look cool for a thirty something Mum to be wearing!? (er.. ha ha can I even use the word 'cool' at my age?)... Not too bad. After 2 years of invisalign and 4 months of braces I'll have straight teeth - yay!

.. finally

Well after weeks of anticipating moving house, making mum's piccalilli (really more like a relish), strawberry jam and yet more mandarin marmalade.. we're in and settled.
The garden makes me anxious. Too many unsafe places, too exposed to the private road and NO ROOM TO GROW!
Gosh I miss growing vegies already. This is spring and I have this desperate urge to stick my hands in dirt, dig, sew, water, mulch and plan what I'll do with gluts of giant zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and potatoes. I was even going to try corn again this year. At least I kept my curry leaf tree...

Humf! How dull. Still... I've got my new vacola unit and can start using up some of these age old jars I got on freecycle. I'll just have to make a trip down to the markets before the apples hike in price as the season changes. Make some pie filling.. then maybe some strawberry and apple jam next time.

Dud marmalade... YUUUM!

No, Dud isn't a new kind of citrus fruit. This was a batch of Hickson mandarin marmalade. The smell and taste of Hickson's are sooo sweet fresh and delish! I used this at the bottom of muffin tins when making cup cakes. It's going to be yum on a lemon drizzle cake.

I couldn't help but stick ALL of the peel in. It wasn't bitter. It's the seeds and pith that are in the muslin that make it bitter. They have heaps of pectin which sets the marmalade.

I cooked it for HOURS but it didn't set. I think now it was due to my low cooking point and should have upped it alot. BUT even though it didn't set it's the most delish by far!

 I made some Murcot marmalade the following week and it wasn't as nice. Too much sugar for my liking and didn't have the same taste as the lovely Hicksons.

So I got onto lemon butter instead. In my opinion, the microwave method sucks...... well, lemons. It doesn't have that sharp, delightful zesty taste. So I'm doing it by hand from now on. After we move anyway. Time to pack up.
x

Minding My Peas and Cucumbers

You never forget that realization of sheer joy the first time you feel it. For me it was standing in my Father in law's allotment. He was far off picking beans.. or something and DH was about two feet to my right. 

We were elbow deep in raspberry scratches. I remember the delicious tang of the baby soft raspberries in my mouth as I looked up at the biggest cloudless summer sky. I was blissfully relaxed and had DH by my side. It was only then that I realized my joyous passion in life (the first anyway.... :o)

The Cottage Smallholder's lovely write up on this book makes me want it to read it.

I think of my Father in law whenever this topic of allotments pops up.

 

Thanks Gramps! I'm sure I really didn't want to help you that freezing English spring when you asked me to help plant out all those seed trays. 

We ate from your allotment EVERY night that summer with Kippers from the Isle of Man that you brought back. Bliss!!

Home Pickled Onions

I've been itching to talk about this one! This is why I blog.. not to get a bunch of followers (though that's nice) but to blab about things where most of my friends wouldn't be able to share my enthusiasm on the topic.

I love pickled onions but my husband doesn't. But who cares?! I couldn't believe my luck when I found some at the supermarket. Since we're moving I'd much rather pack jars full of homemade goods than empty. Gives a bit of excitement. By the time we move and unpack they should be ready to eat. Though I might leave them until Christmas.

I did these the slow way, brining for 12 (or 24) hours before rinsing then stuffing in the jars with pre-spiced vinegar. All cold. I sterilised the jars and left them in the oven to cool before putting everything together.

 The bucket was clean! I've already packed away my big brining bowl.

I couldn't find any pickling spice mix so I made two of my own. The MAJOR bummer with this is that it's impossible to find chunky dried bits of allspice etc. It's all powdered. So I did what I could though it's left the cloudy vinegar to settle with spice sediment everywhere. No matter, it'll still taste good just will be a little stronger over time than I wanted.

 It wasn't until I'd done the two different spice blends that I realised I prefer white vinegar with a dash of malt... nevermind!

Ta Daaa!

Ok so I bought this loooong cardigan on holiday at the Gold Coast almost 2 years ago. Loved the purple colour but not the figure hugging style. A huge NO NO for pear shapes such as myself. So I finally did something about it.
I turned this......(or a similar)

To this!

 I cut the bottom off, hemmed it (WISH I'd have kept the tie belt as that would have made great edging for the bottom) and cut out circles from the off cut. then stretched them out as I sewed the edges in a button hole type stitch so they went all wiggly. Then pinned them on. I wish I had more material to do the whole collar. I haven't decided if I want them all at the front or all down one side so they'll stay pinned for the moment.

So well done me for being brave and going for it instead of looking for ideas on the internet.. then giving up before I've started.
xx