Catching up with Preserving the Produce

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I enjoy having fresh herbs (and garlic) at hand

Time to get cracking on all those tomatoes! I needed some smaller packs in the freezer that I can pull out and use for dinner every now and again. I did a few containers of plain tomato.  Then I also made up a nice big pot of tomatoes, onion, garlic, capsicum & fresh herbs – a nice ready made mix for pasta sauces.

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Pasta mix

And then in a total fit of organisation that my mother would be proud of, I even labelled and dated the containers!

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Ready for the freezer

Onward!

I have been wanting to make up a batch of my Nanna’s cucumber relish. I even went and bought some celery seeds from the health food shop in anticipation of getting my act (and cucumbers) together

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My stash of celery seed!

Procrastination set in and I have been carrying around this suspicious looking bag in my purse for 3 weeks. I am sure cashiers have raised their eyebrows once or twice as I have opened it up!!

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More chopping

Happily the recipe also calls for apples – another 5 apples put to good use!

First Ingredients:

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Cucumber, apple & onion

1&1/2 lb cucumber peeled & chopped

1 lb green apples peeled and chopped

1 lb onion chopped

1/2 lb sugar

1/2lb white vinegar

1 small tablespoon salt

Cook all until tender

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Enjoying using my Nanna’s old scales when making up her recipes!

Second Ingredients:

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Spice & colour

1/2 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 tablespoon mustard powder

1/2 tablespoon turmeric

1 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 cup flour (I use cornflour to keep gluten free)

Mix all with a little more vinegar into a paste and add to relish, cook to thicken, keep stirring.

Spoon into sterilised jars

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Almost done

Yum. Another nice old fashioned recipe that I hadn’t made in a while.

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I NEED to order more jars/lids – especially lids!!!

Last on my list today was to make up a pumpkin soup. I had been eyeing off my little stash of pumpkins and thinking about soup!

So I baked a few pieces –

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First time I have bothered baking pumpkin for soup! Best flavour!

I fried up some onion and garlic, then added a litre of chicken stock and a couple of potatoes along with the baked pumpkin (sans skin of course)

Once the potato was soft, I whizzed it all up into creaminess and was pretty much done! I usually love adding coconut cream or coconut milk to pumpkin soup, but my taste test on this was pretty good so I thought I would leave it as is tonight!

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All fancy tonight with an entrée for dinner!!

So I am all kitchened out today. If the weather is kind, I will have to get outside tomorrow to play!

Its only 7 degrees C out there tonight (44F) and we indulged in a fire again tonight. During the day it was on and off again warm and cool, along with sun and rain! Typical “can’t make up my mind” weather for this place! 🙂

Have a great day!

Cheers

 

 

Author: Lisa

A happy traveller through life! Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens. We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.

6 thoughts on “Catching up with Preserving the Produce”

    1. Its a savoury taste – hard to describe actually. Its got a tang with a little bit of sweet! I want to mix it in with some cream cheese to make a dip. I had some of Ruby’s the other day on top of a scone with cheese and it was so good!! (Which spurred me into finally doing a batch for us) Jeff is hoping I will buy some hot dogs so he can put it on those!

  1. Hi, Lisa! Recently started following you after seeing some posts on One hundred dollars a month and enjoy all your photos, animals, garden and your family stories! Just a question about the relish, did you can it after jarring it? Waterbath or pressure? And I like your jars and lids but they look like commercially jarred stuff in the US. Are they what you use in Tasmania to can? Very interesting! We have lots of Mason and Ball jars and Mavis uses Weck jars which I like.
    I haven’t seen this type of canning jar before. Thank you for sharing your day with me. You are living my dream life!

    1. Hi – I haven’t gotten into (ie lack so far the equipment and knowledge) to do the canning with a waterbath. The recipes I use are fine if I just use jars/bottles with lids. the glass containers are heated in the oven, the relish/jam/sauce is put in hot, then a well washed & dried lid is put on. No more to do! You can keep them for a long time this way. (easily more than a year although I sell the newer ones and we eat our way through older stock) We have Fowler Jars here – like Mason. One day when I am ready (and have the $$ aside) I would like to do the other preserving. Ruby and some other cousins do it, so I will be able to have my pick of teachers! 🙂
      Thank-you so much for following my stories and I am glad you are enjoying them!

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