#making preserves

[thefoodarchivist]

Victoria plum and cinnamon preserves

[thefoodarchivist]

Made some spiced rhubarb, date and apple chutney using this recipe from the BBC good food website (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/rhubarb-date-chutney)

50g fresh root ginger, grated

300ml red wine vinegar

500g eating apple, peeled and chopped

200g dates, chopped

100g dried cranberries

100g raisins

1 tbsp mustard seed

1 tbsp curry powder

400g light muscovado sugar

700g rhubarb, sliced into 2cm chunks

500g red onion, diced

Salt

Put the onions in a large pan with the ginger and vinegar. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the rhubarb, plus 2 tsp salt to the pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 mins until the apples are tender.

Stir in the rhubarb and cook, uncovered, until the chutney is thick and jammy, about 15-20 mins. Leave the chutney to sit for about 10-15 mins, then spoon into warm, clean jars, and seal. Label the jars when cool. Keep for at least a month before eating.

The bottom photo shows the finished chutney as well as plum and greengage jams to use up a glut of fruit from my parents’ garden and rhubarb and stem ginger jam which I also made to help use up a glut of rhubarb from ours!

[thefoodarchivist]

Victoria plums from the Archivist’s parents’ garden and the resulting plum jam

[taikatoriartist]

it's the season to cook marmalade and jams!i

[bibliophilecats]

myellenbee replied to your photo “thelivebookproject replied to your photo “It's the very end of August...”

Jam and jelly!

There are not enough strawberries for jam but early this summer, I went to a friend’s grandparent’s alotment. They have about 7 old, well-established red currant plants. We had two huge plastic containers and it did not look like all that much (they were not even full). However, when I got home I realised that we had picked over 6 kg (12 pounds) of red currants. Then I got sick so my freezer was bursting with frozen currants. I started making jelly and jam but there are still some currants (I guess about 1.5 kg) left.

[thegirlwhoownstheworld-blog]

Making preserves

Somedays aren't yours at all, so we make preserves. I don't make jams, I make dreams and memories that I stick into little jars and put in the cellar of myself. When the winter comes, it is not always cold, but it is always barren. It is always empty and desolate, so I eat the dreams, and touch the pictures of beautiful memories and remember I once was happy.

My winters come in August. I shiver and cry a lot then, but it's okay because I've stockpiled something nice to sustain me.

The problem is, sometimes there are constant winters, and all you can put away is a tiny morsel, the smallest doodle scribbled in pencil on a faded yellow paper. You savor this memory over and over again, and try to build yourself up.

Sometimes, you just go to bed hungry.

Don't tell poor people to start canning their own food, when they have to can memories already.