ZUCCHINI PICKLES

Preserving and storing food takes up lots of room in my pantry and freezer but I can't stand having food go to waste especially after I've taken the time to grow it myself. Yesterday I picked yet another huge zucchini from our garden, funnily enough I barely had any to pick through summer but now the plants seem to have their second wind and are producing quite well. One of my favourite ways to preserve zucchini is to make pickles and my favourite recipe is from Sally Wise' A Year In A Bottle.

This double batch using 2kg of zucchini made up 12 x 300ml jars, enough to last us a couple of years.

BUSY IN THE KITCHEN

This last month I've been squeezing the life out of tomatoes to make yummy bottles of passata for the winter months.  My pantry is looking nicely stocked as is my freezer.

 

 

 

Got to love Squeezo, she makes life so easy.

Yesterday was spent in the kitchen once again, this time cooking up vegetable stock to can, baking banana & chocolate muffins and bread, slow cooking curried sausages and making up some delicious beef and vegetable soup.



Now that's a productive day in the kitchen, hopefully I will have another day like that soon.

PICKLING GARLIC

After my bumper crop of garlic this season I wondered if I could possibly get through it all in a year without it sprouting so I decided to pickle some.

 

I used Pam Corbin's recipe from Preserves but replaced the saffron with a pinch of tumeric for the colour.

500g newer garlic
15 peppercorns
5 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar pinch of saffron threads

Sterilize your jars and lids.  Submerge all of the garlic in hot water, and keep it in for about 20 seconds.  Remove, and the garlic will slide right out of its skins.
Put the vinegar, sugar and saffron into a pan. Bring the mixture to a boil then take off heat. Pack the garlic cloves into the sterilized jars, adding a bay leaf and peppercorns as you go. Pour the hot vinegar over the garlic, and top with the lid and band. If the vinegar is hot enough, the jar should seal (the center of the lid will suck down) within a couple of hours. If it doesn’t seal, you can also process in a hot water bath for ten minutes, or store in the refrigerator. Use within a year.

 

They look so pretty in their little jars.

OH THE POSSIBILITIES

 

Sophie and I did a second picking of apricots I can't quite believe that not only did we plant this tree 2 years ago but last year we were so happy to get 10 apricots from it.   This year there are hundreds, we are in apricot heaven!

 

We quickly gifted some still warm jam to neighbours and then made up some more rhubarb jam with the stalks my sister gave me this week.

 

Last night I refreshed my memory on what I could do with the glut and today the dehydrator will come out for fruit leathers and dried apricots, I will also cook some apricot pulp to pop in the freezer for pies in winter.

I'm so happy to have such a thriving tree in our front yard.

(there are still heaps on the tree that should be ripe in another week or so).

RHUBARB JAM

Delicious!!!!!

 

1 kg chopped rhubarb
1 kg sugar
1 cap full of vanilla essence
Juice of one lemon.

Mix everything together and let sit covered for 5-6 hours.
Cook, stirring for 25-45 mins until setting point.
Pour into warm sterilised jars.

So easy and perfect for a quick Chrissy gift.

CHALLENGES OF THE SELF RELIANT

While we are down to one car and that car being a sedan, there are times when I need a little more room. My first challenge of the day was to try and fit 4 bales of lucerne hay and 2 kids into the car without hay getting spread everywhere. It was a tight fit but I did it and after a little bit of car cleaning the hay is happily under a tarp ready to be used as mulch.

Something I've been struggling with is freezer space especially now that I have given up the bottom shelf to Darren to keep his bait and ice for fishing in (he re-uses 2 litre milk containers by filling them with water to freeze.) He was using a small old fridge up in the shed and his Waeco to freeze the ice and bait. Do you know how much power that wastes!!!! So the fridge and Waeco are now turned off and we are down to one appliance. One of the main reasons for buying my canner last month was to reduce the amount of food I have to put in the freezer like my chicken stock I make. I was gifted about 6 dozen fowlers jars by a lovely lady and a lot of them are the smaller size 20 jars. They are perfect for stocks and soups as they hold about 3 cups. I used my pressure canner for the first time today to preserve my stock. So quick and easy and now they will go into the pantry. The colour is really intense, when I freeze stock the colour is nearly clear yet by pressure canning this is the colour of the stock.

Does anyone else have a pressure canner? Have you noticed a change in colour? What about flavour? I would love to hear from those who have.

Out in the patch, my tomatoes, basil and capsicums are happily growing in the hot-house.

We are picking beetroot this week and the onions and leeks are going strong.

I will leave you with a photo of Heidi. Awwww look how she likes to rest her head on her paws on her favourite toy.

10 BOTTLES OF SAUCE SITTING ON A BENCH....

I couldn't believe how quickly Squeezo works. Such a time and wrist saver!!!!! One thing I did learn was not to use previously frozen tomatoes in him. They have too much liquid to push through and this does take a bit longer. Next season I will put the tomatoes through Squeezo first, then freeze while waiting for the whole crop to be ready.

We now have 7 litres of yummy homemade tomato sauce. The tomatoes and garlic were home grown but I had to buy the onions as I didn't have enough of our own.

PANTRY SHELF PEEK

This is my shelf for all of my preserved goodies.

I have heaps of summer fruits, sauce, pickles, jams, chillies, eggplant, beetroot, tomatoes, bay leaves and apples.

Over the year I hope to use them all up and continue to bottle, freeze or dehydrate so I'll always have stock.

FAB FRIDAY

Yep, more preserving going on here while the stone fruit is cheap. It will be great to have some yummy summer fuit for the cold winter this year.

The next photos are of 2 books I have borrowed from friends and the library and have wanted for myself for ages. I sold an item in my madeit shop and decided to spend the money on these books.


I picked my first tomatoes and strawberries today, I can't show a photo as I ate them right away.
Blessings
xxxSue