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The Forgetful Preserves Of Sel strike once more!
I make preserves from the excess of my garden and other people's gardens. I do this every year in varying ways. This year, I'm making kumquat-and-lavendar shrub (a drinking vinegar) from a bunch of kumquats my mother dumped on me before she left for her nine-week holiday.
Anyway, I gave away quite a few jars of preserves at yesterday's crop swap event (you take your excess, other people bring their excess, you swap things - some by arrangement, some on the 'general table'). And, um, someone got the jar of kumquats about 3 years old which has been stored in the dark since then and is quite edible.
So edible, they say "one jar isn't going to be enough, and I need to learn how to do this with my citrus!"
Uh. The problem is that I DON'T KNOW THE RECIPE.
I just tend to wing the preserves I make: enough sugar, vinegar, or alcohol (or a mix) to keep it from spoiling, boil the fruit/vegies if necessary, add spices appropriate to what's being preserved, seal jar and store propertly. It works for me, and, apparently, for all the people who are really annoyed that I don't keep a record of my preserving recipes because they'd like to replicate it please only I don't have any recipe, I just made it up as I went...
*sigh* Every year I think I'll write it down, but it's kind of a case of 'why bother'? Because the preserves are always good and people love them and eat them and that's the important thing, right? We don't always need a recipe, sometimes we can go out on a limb and run with whatever's working at the time...
I make preserves from the excess of my garden and other people's gardens. I do this every year in varying ways. This year, I'm making kumquat-and-lavendar shrub (a drinking vinegar) from a bunch of kumquats my mother dumped on me before she left for her nine-week holiday.
Anyway, I gave away quite a few jars of preserves at yesterday's crop swap event (you take your excess, other people bring their excess, you swap things - some by arrangement, some on the 'general table'). And, um, someone got the jar of kumquats about 3 years old which has been stored in the dark since then and is quite edible.
So edible, they say "one jar isn't going to be enough, and I need to learn how to do this with my citrus!"
Uh. The problem is that I DON'T KNOW THE RECIPE.
I just tend to wing the preserves I make: enough sugar, vinegar, or alcohol (or a mix) to keep it from spoiling, boil the fruit/vegies if necessary, add spices appropriate to what's being preserved, seal jar and store propertly. It works for me, and, apparently, for all the people who are really annoyed that I don't keep a record of my preserving recipes because they'd like to replicate it please only I don't have any recipe, I just made it up as I went...
*sigh* Every year I think I'll write it down, but it's kind of a case of 'why bother'? Because the preserves are always good and people love them and eat them and that's the important thing, right? We don't always need a recipe, sometimes we can go out on a limb and run with whatever's working at the time...
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