For Free

[poliphilo]

You know what?  There could be enough sun and wind about today to dry a load of washing. Sameena-next-door has had the same idea. You gotta grab the free stuff while it's being offered.

One of the good things about Paganism is it puts you back in touch with the instincts of the farmer and the hunter gatherer. I'm not a Pagan any more. Not really. But I think my time in the movement has sharpened up my appreciation of the things that can't be got in shops.

There's riches all around. Accept with thanks and try not to waste.

My father in law has apple trees. They produce tons of apples. These apples aren't as pretty as the one's you get in the supermarket,  nor as big either, but they taste OK. We eat them, the rabbits eat them.

Last night I stewed a load of them in port and served them with ice-cream.

Also I'm cutting  them up and bagging them and putting them in the freezer as winter provender.

Only the freezer isn't big enough to hold them all.

When I was a kid we used to store apples in an old air-raid shelter. It was built into the hillside and had a laburnum tree on top. 

In those years after WWII you didn't waste a thing.  All of us lived like misers.

I was thinking about this just now- on a nostagia trip if you like- when it suddenly occured to me I could store the surplus apples in one of the sheds.  Bloody obvious, really.  I reckon if I put down newspaper and laid the apples in rows- not touching- like my mother used to do,  it ought to lengthen their shelf life. The sheds are just as cool and dark as the old shelter was. 

So there's a job for me to get stuck into this afternoon......

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ginger plum chutney sounds wonderful.

Maybe I need to get into making jam and chutney.

[oakmouse]

My plan is to cut the plums in half and pit them, chop up some onions and some candied ginger, and throw those (maybe with some raisins too) into a pot and cook it until thick. Then add mustard seed and perhaps some turmeric, jar it, and run it through a boiling water bath process.

Jam and chutney are so easy! Most of the work is in the cutting up of the ingredients.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember my mother making jam- very good jam too. But from where I was standing it seemed like an alchemical mystery- something I could never attain to. I don't really know why.

What's "a boiling water bath process"? It sounds fearsome.

[oakmouse]

It's not --- quite easy, really. You have a big pot called a canning kettle (like these: http://www.pickyourown.org/canningsupplies.htm#canners) and you fill it to a certain mark with water, cover it, and bring it to the boil. You then sterilize your jars, lids, and rings in the boiling water, and then when you've filled and sealed the jars you boil the filled jars in it for a fixed period of time. And bob's your uncle.

That's the five cent version, but it's not a whole lot more complex than that, just details of how long and so forth. You can use a BWB for any acid food --- jam, pickles, chutneys, most fruit. If you want to put up veg, meat, or fish, you need a pressure canner.

I have six jars of strawberry-peach jam and seven jars of plum chutney cooling next to me right now, and am processing five more jars of chutney. (My canner holds seven jars at a go.) It all came out quite well. Fresh fruit, clean equipment, and a little time, and you can't really go wrong.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that doesn't seem so difficult.

I think I'm going to have to consider taking it up.

I love home-made jam.

[oakmouse]

Homemade jam is unbeatable! And if you can get the fruit for a reasonable price, it's cheap too.