I absolutely love this time of year with the promise of Autumn just around the corner. Nights are beginning to draw in, mornings grow a little darker, and the countryside offers up it's gem-like fruits ripe for the picking.
Am I weird in saying I'm excited having spent part of the morning looking at various Kilner and Preserving Jars, which each Autumn I promise myself I'll buy, but never quite seem to get around to doing? Instead entire surfaces of my very tiny kitchen are awash with an eclectic mix of jam and pickle jars and a jumble of assorted lids, collected over the summer in readiness for when the jam pan comes out of hibernation from the top of the fridge. Invariably I find I'm always a lid or two short come the moment I want to bottle up my labours.
Visiting other people's blogs, a fair few of whom are already busy conserving or bubbling a variety of fruits into jams and chutneys has made me realise quite how slap dash my approach has hitherto been. So I've just placed an order for these babies;
and these;
from the Lakeland catalogue; http://www.lakeland.co.uk/ and am now looking forward to taking possession of the kind of jars that used to line my grandmother's pantry. It's her recipes I still use to make the chutneys and pickles which see us over the dark winter period. I've a feeling once in receipt of them I'll be hugging and stroking the jars like a real life Sméagol muttering 'my precious' at anyone who deigns to attempt to take them off me.
Such simple pleasures are best not analysed too deeply......
I love canning jars too. They have such promise of wonderful things that may some day be stored in them. I used to can a lot, but don't anymore. But I still buy canning jars. Just bought some short, wide mouth jars for storing leftovers in the fridge. I HATE plastic and won't buy plastic storage containers or plastic wrap. But glass seems to be alive and exciting.
ReplyDeleteThe farmers here are harvesting wheat which is very satisfying (if dusty) to watch.
Cenya
Hi, there! This is nice. My goodness! I haven't canned in ages!
ReplyDeleteI remember the year we put in tomato plants where there used to be a dog kennel, since it was already cleared. My hubby said "16 plants should do it!" The locals, probably half the community, drove by to check out the 8 foot tomato 'wonders'! If a car stopped, we would run out with a bag and let them help themselves. LOL It was funny!. But, we had tomato sauce, Marinara sauce, stewed tomatoes, tomato gravy, you name it, for months! LOL
It's Saturday morning and we are preparing for a backyard pool/birthday party for my g-son. The family is either here, or on their way. The children are over-bubbly! It's going to be a day for the scrapbooks. Better make sure the camera battery is good. LOL
May your weekend be relaxing, yet, fulfilling for you and your loved ones!
Su
I think I'm beginning to get like you Cenya in that I don't like plastic storage containers for food and such like but confess I have begun to use clingfilm (which I think is the same as your clingwrap)when faffing around with clay. If you place it over wet clay before you cut a shape, it makes it plump out rather nicely instead of the shape remaining entirely flat surfaced.
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of your over abundance of tomatos Su! My partner Ian has a great fondness for green tomato chutney so he'd have been in seventh heaven there I think!
How wonderful to have a surplus of tomatoes. I don't have a garden and am dependent on supermarket ones. I've taken to sun drying them...well not quite sun drying them, but drying them in the oven. With olive oil, salt and oregano, they are really delicious. You just can't buy them as good as that. They take around 4 hours in the oven though
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