What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2006 - 2016)

[Dave W]

I should add I only really put up paste tomatoes. The other tomatoes eat too well fresh to bother with preserving imo.

[heidih]

Dave W - I described my grape syrup here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/134994-flavorful-but-seedy-grapes/#entry1764315

How do you make yours?

[heidih]

I do a jar of nasturtium seed pods every year. Here is the topic http://forums.egullet.org/topic/134994-flavorful-but-seedy-grapes/#entry1764315

 

This is what remains of the current batch. I like them in seafood salads, and in a spread with roasted eggplant & tomatoes with some crushed strong olives.

 

 

 

[rotuts]

ripe A's are stunning fragile.  this box probably came from only a few miles away

 

if they shipped them ripe, they would be 'Jelly and Smelly ' at the destination.

[Dave W]

Heidih I make my syrup similarly except I cooked with the skins on rather than let them steep before running through a fruit press and fine mesh strainer.

I also added sugar to mine. About a cup to a gallon of grapes if I remember right. You're right it does keep fantastically in the fridge. I never saw any mold or fermentation in mine.

[Porthos]

 people W/O gardens lined right up..  

 

I can remember as a teenager traveling with my parents in the late 60s heading back south from Saratoga and stopping along 101 to buy 50 lbs of onions for $1.00. It  may not have come from our garden but it did give us several months of onions.

[rotuts]

nice  really nice

 

back at that time maybe Cupertino was incorporated or not.

 

think  AAPL.

 

sorry you missed the apricots !

 

BTW  there was a movie a zillion years ago

 

The Exorsist   1971

 

the house was in the New Cupertino  and they left one apricot tree in each houses Sub-division

 

you can see it now ?

 

how do I know this 

 

some of these newer houses were where a few friends of mine lived in late '68

[hummingbirdkiss]

stocking up is challenging right now! 

I sadly will be shutting down half my garden beds because we do not have water in the northwest and we are fooling ourselves by not having a severe water restrictions right now! Yesterday! The mountains have no snow and we have no rain and ..that to me is terrifyingly real. But I still see sprinklers going hoses leaking and people letting water run while they brush teeth…not to mention golf courses .we have a lot of those …but my personal bitch aside ..

one thing is my fruit trees are going to give me a record harvest! Now wouldn't that be the case the one year I have the kitchen gutted and no stove or freezer during my DIY kitchen remodeling insanity? LOL!!! I am looking at several hundred pounds of fruit I have to figure out how to "put by" differently …I  probably do some canning on a propane burner outdoors but really do not want to do this at all if possible ..I will be donating a lot of this to the food bank in town for sure ….

in the meant time if you guys have any unusual and fun ideas for figs grapes and plums (the three very large crops I have ) and probably 60lbs of quince I usually just dump sugar on it or make paste …mostly I like them to make my house smell good! 

 

so YES  If you come up with anything fun unusual ..things you would do with out a stove or freezer to put food by I am grateful and will give them a try ..certainly have enough to work with LOL very grateful for this challenge trust me but wow talk about timing LOLOL FINALLY I get a new kitchen and a record harvest in the same summer LOL not complaint just ..wow !!! shit!!! 

 

friends have offered to do a group kitchen and help me can…. I will do that vs let food be wasted ...nothing is EVER wasted I have ducks and chickens! ) but to be honest on persons disaster is my thrill ….I would rather just embrace the struggle and find a new route this year!  

 

 

right now however …

Raspberries have to be picked today!( actually right now instead of writing this I should be picking)  and half will be eaten as I pick them but the other half will be split between a bottle of everclear and  a years worth of raspberry jam (with the image of hazelnut cookies stuffed with it on my brain )

 

nasturtiums are seeding already I just salt the seeds when they are fat and leave them in salt until they are gone I use them just like capers. 

 

 

dehydrating the rest of the wild plums or cherry plums whatever folks call them as.. li hing mui… I did a test batch and they were gone so fast ! 

 

I am now using the last of the berries, cherries and early plums making sour syrup for Persian food but I do not have to can that it keeps "forever" or until it is gone! I love that stuff and use it a lot in cooking for anything sweet/tart …...they all move right over into other cultures as a sweet/sour component 

 

I have all the lavender cut and hanging along with all the fragrant herbs I routinely dry sage, rosemary ect ..I can pick most herbs year round but they do not taste as good …..so I do not leave them up much longer than it takes to dehydrate then seal them for use later when things get bitter and do not have the flavor they have now 

 

 

mostly I feel like physical shit from the pollen and bad air right now (RAIN PLEASE!!!) I am kind of glad to be at a stand still (between planting and harvest I time at least a few weeks of "down time" you can do that when you are old and gardened for decades ..time breaks! LOL I never used to it was bam bam bam…

 

just waiting for rain…hoping it will not all come at once, rot and split the beautiful record harvest of fruit …  but hoping it will come! 

[Deryn]

hummingbirdkiss - If you don't have a dehydrator of any kind, consider getting one. You may be able to find one at a thrift store, or failing that, a Nesco from a big box store may be your solution - at least temporarily - for that harvest you are going to reap this year. You can dehydrate that fruit and use it later to make the jams if you want, or just keep it almost indefinitely till you decide on how to use it. Better to dehydrate than lose it all if you can use it up quickly.

[gulfporter]

When I lived in Bisbee, AZ, I was lucky to have a large old quince tree in my yard.  It was a great producer!  I made jars of chutney (many for gifts), as well as a pie filling that I'd partially cook stove-top, then freeze in individual baggies that I'd pull out and bake as free form tarts all winter.

 

When I lived in Mexico we had a lime tree so I made preserved limes (like Indian preserved lemons).  That condiment was a treat as there were no Indian foods available nearby. 

 

We moved to FL last year and the Meyer Lemon tree at this house isn't much of a producer so I haven't put up anything here.  There's an excellent farmer's market here (Gulfport) and in St. Pete, so I could go grab a bushel of various produce, but I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age.  

Edited June 25, 2015 by gulfporter (log)

[FauxPas]

We are starting to get some delicious BC Okanagan apricots now and I wanted apricot jam, so I made a small batch this morning. Because there are only two of us and because we don't eat a lot of jam, I only used about 2 1/2 cups of fruit.

 

I am not precise when I do stovetop jams, but they mostly come out just fine. I added a cup of sugar, a fairly generous amount of lemon zest for pectin, a few squeezes of lemon juice and a few drops of Grand Marnier. I used a mid-sized skillet and let the mixture simmer for at least 10 minutes to soften the fruit, then broke it up with a masher and simmered at a slightly higher temp for another 10 mins, stirring frequently. After that, it began to thicken quite nicely. 

 

It still has some suspended fruit in it, though that is hard to see in the photos. We sampled it on some toast and both thought it was very tasty indeed. So simple, but so rewarding! 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

That looks beautiful, FauxPas! I love the color. It's a salute to the memory of the much-lamented and sorely-missed apricots noted above.

We have a windfall of Real Strawberries right now, from a farmer about 50 miles south who trucks the stuff up the same day they're picked. They're red all the way through, tender, juicy and packed with flavor. So far I've been pigging out on them and sharing them around with friends and neighbors while they're still good (they don't keep). However. with the next bucketful I may try making a small jar of non-gelled refrigerator preserves. What would be the optimum amount of sugar so the fruit keeps and the flavor isn't overwhelmed? Should a small amount of acid be added to brighten them? The purpose would be to have a nice strawberry sauce for the occasional toast or dessert topping. I've never liked commercial strawberry preserves, but a few home cooks have demonstrated that it can be done well.

[FauxPas]

Smithy, 

 

The freshest and tastiest strawberries don't keep well at all, I know what you mean. I either scarf 'em down or freeze them. (You can always use frozen berries later for preserves also, if you only want to make a small batch now.)

 

I saw this video years ago and it made me realize that using a skillet (rather than a higher-sided pot) was the easiest way to make small batches of low-sugar jams and that's what I always do now. I rarely make more than a couple of small jars of jam at a time unless I am gifting some, so I skip the water-bath canning and just make sure I use clean equipment and jars and then store in the fridge. I've kept it there for a month but keep an eye on things, because low-sugar doesn't keep as well as higher sugar. 

 

Proportions can be as low or lower than 4 parts fruit to 1 part sugar, by volume - eg, 4 cups fruit to 1 cup sugar or 2 cups fruit to 1/2 cup sugar. I've even used a bit less than that and you can use almost as little as you wish if you aren't worried about setting/gelling and you're going to use it fairly fast. 

 

Personally, I think about 4:1 is a pretty good ratio for a spreadable jam. I can get a pretty good gel with that proportion, but it does take a bit of time to cook it down. It still tastes lovely, but if you want a fresher taste and don't need a gel, just go by taste. In order to ensure a gel, add lemon and/or orange zest - it's rich in pectin. I usually do add a little bit of lemon/lime or orange juice as well to brighten the flavour. And sometimes I add a tiny bit of liqueur, like Grand Marnier or Kirsch. 

 

I don't like most commercial strawberry preserves, either. Home-made has almost always turned out to be way better! 

 

Probably someone else will have some additional experiences/thoughts/comments. 

[hummingbirdkiss]

well my freezer just went tits up and I am telling you timing could not be better (extreme laughter and sarcasm inserted here please because now I am really in a mess!) I divided the food between our beer fridge's freezer and the kitchen freezer..but at the same time? I am having issue with needing to put the kitchen fridge out and see what is going on because the drip tray keeps loading up with water and leaking all over the floor (new fridge I guess common problem because folks are complaining all over the place online) 

Monday the solar tube is going in ..I have to be out of the kitchen that day so my husband and his buddy can install it…and so this weekend? I will be canning food in a marathon session …with a pressure and water bath canner on a propane burners in 100F weather with a hose because our fire danger is so flipping hight I am terrified of setting our town on fire. So let the canning begin …glad I have a new dishwasher at least I do not have to worry about the jars I just put them on a short cycle and can right into them from the dry cycle. 

I encourage anyone who has not canned or otherwise put food by ..to do it .. know having skills prevents hysteria! If I had no idea what to do I would be freaking out right now at the tremendous loss because my back up fridge is not a safe place to keep food for much more than a few days ..the freezer is just a bit colder than the fridge so it has become my thawing ground now .. ..hence the panic canning… ..I am so GLAD I learned to can the first years of being on my own as a grown up.. When I first moved out I started reading Rodale books and Motherearth News and then found the Cooperative Extensions …and read those books and magazines ( had "Putting Food By" "Stocking up Now" and all kinds of good canning books Sunset books were really great early on for me) I grew up in the city..my family shopped daily for the evening meal and no one ever preserved food that I knew. Other than basement wine and I will tell you what right now I am glad I have basement wine on hand! CHEERS and Happy 4th of July to all! Happy Food Preserving …wow the freezer died ..LOL I have no stove it blew up ..the ovens one is dead and the other only cooks at 350 and I am in the midst of getting ready put a hole in the roof to light the kitchen ..of COUSE  I need to can a freezer full of food right now LOLOL! (actually it is half a freezer I was in the midst of a kitchen purge to restock after the remodel is done so I guess the timing is "fine")   ..the bad part ? I had to toss all the frozen spring rolls and patties I made just a few weeks ago ..in advance so they would be easy for the remodel period …they were just too thawed and I could not fry or bake them in time ..argh what a waste …ducks and chickens got them and loved them

[TicTac]

Preserving is the name of the game in my family...

 

some of the things we have made this year:

 

Pickled Ramp leaves

Pickled Ramp bulbes

Ramp Oil (with diff variations)

Strawberry Jam

Pickled Garlic Scapes

Rhubarb chutney (savory)

Rhubarb/Strawberry preserve

[FauxPas]

Went to the farm and bought some more produce today - lots of purple and yellow snap beans. Mmm. Might have to freeze some of them, but steamed a few for a bean salad. I love bean salad with fresh beans! This won't last long, we'll eat it for lunch or as a dinner side. Boring, but good. 

 

 

Also had a small batch of red beets and made a jar of pickled beets layered with sliced red onion and topped with a few boiled eggs. We'll eat the eggs within a few days - I like the colour and the taste of beet-pickled eggs. And then we can use the onions and beets as a side or in salads or sandwiches over the next few weeks. For pickling liquid I used cider vinegar, water, sugar, a few cloves and a cinnamon stick. 

 

 

 

These aren't processed, just made for the fridge and quick eating. 

 

[weinoo]

 

A friend gifted to me her CSA basket, as she was going out of town.  I pickled most of it - radish,

beet, Japanese turnip, kohlrabi, young garlic, spring onion, yellow squash, carrot (from my fridge).

This is a mild pickle recipe from The Joy of Pickling. Too mild, imo.

And - is there a more boring vegetable than yellow squash - in any of its iterations?

[andiesenji]

well my freezer just went tits up and I am telling you timing could not be better (extreme laughter and sarcasm inserted here please because now I am really in a mess!) I divided the food between our beer fridge's freezer and the kitchen freezer..but at the same time? I am having issue with needing to put the kitchen fridge out and see what is going on because the drip tray keeps loading up with water and leaking all over the floor (new fridge I guess common problem because folks are complaining all over the place online) 

Monday the solar tube is going in ..I have to be out of the kitchen that day so my husband and his buddy can install it…and so this weekend? I will be canning food in a marathon session …with a pressure and water bath canner on a propane burners in 100F weather with a hose because our fire danger is so flipping hight I am terrified of setting our town on fire. So let the canning begin …glad I have a new dishwasher at least I do not have to worry about the jars I just put them on a short cycle and can right into them from the dry cycle. 

I encourage anyone who has not canned or otherwise put food by ..to do it .. know having skills prevents hysteria! If I had no idea what to do I would be freaking out right now at the tremendous loss because my back up fridge is not a safe place to keep food for much more than a few days ..the freezer is just a bit colder than the fridge so it has become my thawing ground now .. ..hence the panic canning… ..I am so GLAD I learned to can the first years of being on my own as a grown up.. When I first moved out I started reading Rodale books and Motherearth News and then found the Cooperative Extensions …and read those books and magazines ( had "Putting Food By" "Stocking up Now" and all kinds of good canning books Sunset books were really great early on for me) I grew up in the city..my family shopped daily for the evening meal and no one ever preserved food that I knew. Other than basement wine and I will tell you what right now I am glad I have basement wine on hand! CHEERS and Happy 4th of July to all! Happy Food Preserving …wow the freezer died ..LOL I have no stove it blew up ..the ovens one is dead and the other only cooks at 350 and I am in the midst of getting ready put a hole in the roof to light the kitchen ..of COUSE  I need to can a freezer full of food right now LOLOL! (actually it is half a freezer I was in the midst of a kitchen purge to restock after the remodel is done so I guess the timing is "fine")   ..the bad part ? I had to toss all the frozen spring rolls and patties I made just a few weeks ago ..in advance so they would be easy for the remodel period …they were just too thawed and I could not fry or bake them in time ..argh what a waste …ducks and chickens got them and loved them

I just saw this today.

For future reference -  when my side by side freezer died several years ago (the fridge compressor was separate from the freezer) I used dry ice to keep the frozen stuff solidly frozen -  maintained at 5 degrees F.  Fortunately there is a dry ice supplier just a mile from my home (supplies ice cream trucks and street vendors)  and the thing to do is wrap the stuff in four or five layers of newspaper and put it on the top shelf of an upright freezer - you need 5 pounds for a side-by-side type and 10 pounds for a 22 CF upright.  And it will last for 3 days as long as you don't open the freezer too much. 

It certainly saved the food and allowed me time to get some of the unnecessary stuff out of my big freezer to make room for what needed to be transferred.  And I went to Costco and bought a small chest freezer for temporary use until I got my new fridge.  (Subsequently donated it to the local food bank for a tax deduction as I didn't have room for it.)

[andiesenji]

After a hiatus of several years, after a disastrous pruning done when I was away from home (the tree trimmers were supposed to trim a tree in a neighbor's yard, got the address wrong), my apricot bore heavily this year and I was able to can a bunch of apricot preserves.

And I also dried about 15 pounds.

 

The tree was so burdened with fruit a couple of branches broke but not completely so the fruit continued to ripen - it did make it easier to pick those. 

 

This is a variety call "Katy" which was developed in the late '70s specifically for the high desert where we have hot summers and cold winters with hard freezes.  It is also a very early variety ripening in mid-to-late June.  Extremely sweet and quite tender - not suitable for shipping.

 

This is what one branch looked like just as the fruits were ripening.

[Katie Meadow]

One of my favorite go-to quick pickles is Lisa Fain's (Homesick Texan) Escabeche: cauliflower, carrots and jalapeños. She adds onion and I don't. Sometimes I throw in fennel if I have some. So easy. My friend who is an Italianphile always refers to it as Giardiniera; I always make an extra jar for her and don't mention it's from Texas. It's ready in 24 hrs or less if you want to rob the cradle. I've taken to tasting every jalapeño before using it, as the last batch of jalapeño pickles was so hot even my husband couldn't each more than a bite or two.

Weinoo, your pickles look lovely even if they were too mild. Trade in the yellow squash for a jalapeño. I love the way the beets look, with their rings. To pickle beets I assume one needs to pre-roast or pre-boil the beets. Is that so? Can it be done without? The escabeche recipe above calls for a very short saute of the veggies in olive oil before pickling, and the texture turns out great.

[weinoo]

These were very small beets, so I pickled them raw.

 

But before putting the vegetables in their brine, I salted and let them sit for an hour or two.

[ElainaA]

 

A friend gifted to me her CSA basket, as she was going out of town.  I pickled most of it - radish,

beet, Japanese turnip, kohlrabi, young garlic, spring onion, yellow squash, carrot (from my fridge).

This is a mild pickle recipe from The Joy of Pickling. Too mild, imo.

And - is there a more boring vegetable than yellow squash - in any of its iterations?

Weinoo - Those are beautiful pickles. I have had very mixed success with that book. Which recipe did you use? How would you amp it up?

 

I agree that yellow squash is boring - however I've been growing a golden zucchini for the past few years that has much better flavor than most summer squash.

Elaina

[weinoo]

I'm pretty sure I used the Jardiniere recipe, and probably bastardized it a little bit by pre-salting.

 

I'm also not processing the pickles, but refrigerating them from the get-go.  

 

Maybe they just need some more time (recipe says to wait 3 weeks). Or some more salt.

 

They're nice, they're just not super special.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

weinoo and ElainaA,

 

That golden zucchini is intriguing, ElainaA. I suspect it's something I would have to grow myself to have access to like Franci's courgette trompette from Monaco, that I can only dream about. These are excellent dreams though! 

 

I agree yellow crookneck squash isn't as versatile or flavorful as zucchini, but when fried well, I'd never kick it off my plate. It's very passable too when sauteed/stir-fried at high heat with onion and red bell pepper and not overcooked.

 

I couldn't eat it at all for years though after growing a ton of it (quite literally over a few years) in VT as a kid and having to eat it from the freezer all winter. The freezer is not a friend of yellow summer squash. Can you say squishy, watery ruptured cell structure in a veg that needed all the help it could get when it was fresh off the vine? Yuck. 

[hummingbirdkiss]

I scored access to a very full orchard that has a very full  tree of just on the green side transparent apples and they are getting sliced and put in the dehydrator if you get these green and juicy (before they go yellow and mealy ..god they can be gross) they are a very flavorful apple …so the test to the dehydrator starts now! I made a crisp with them and they are bursting with tart green apple flavor! …I love dried apples and dried apple pie is really good ..I am going to make ketchup with the next load and then give the rest to the ducks ..they give back in more ways that one! 

Edited July 9, 2015 by hummingbirdkiss (log)