Canning/Bottling/Preseving

For those who are near a Spotlight store, they currently have 40% off all BALL products.

 

Hey letsgo, can you let me know who the eBay store is where you get your mason jars? I've looked at bigw and they never seem to have in stock the smaller jars.

 

Its a case of doing a search on eBay and finding the best price and item you want as they might not always be the cheapest or stock the items. I've bought from these people several times http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/ball-mason-australia?_trksid=p2047675.l2559 as a starting point. Also Ozfarmer on eBay.

 

Thanks letsgo!

 

My partner is from Kempsey and every year visits a friend who now lives in South West Rocks. This is generally around Easter time. She arrived yesterday and today picked up my order so thanks for the info...

Got to fill them all now!!!!

 

Awesome well done, you will have fun filling them, I look forward to your posts on here when they are filled.

 

I dont know about that... I cant stack and label them that neat !!,

 

Ok.. I had to use my first jar..? I harvested a barrel of ginger and tumeric and got this..



Dried about 2/3 of the tumeric into this


Close to 2 cups of ground tumeric....

 

Just a heads up... if you are going to pick up from the Krmpsey store... to order online you have to enter their address into their system to be given the option to pickup from the factory or it will try and charge you freight costs.

 

Yes good advice to tell people. Their system is a little weird.

Great job on the turmeric

 

Yes... I can feelmsome curries, tumeric chicken and smashed tumeric potatoes coming on

 

Love what has been going on here. Great photos and ideas.

 

I have a load of beetroot to pick and bottle. Been away for 3 weeks and everything has grown like mad.

 

Beetroot I just canned and but I dehydrated some Chioggia Beetroot as cooking it they lost the coloured rings. I did raw pack some but I think the colour has mostly gone in them too. Apparently people usually use the Chioggia Beetroot raw.





Nice pretty pink colour.

 

Seeing all Letsgo's photos of her fantastic preserves makes me feel a bit lacking since mine are just in plain bottles!

Not to worry, at least I got the fruit this year rather than the bats & rats!

Here are my 2 batches of Seville Orange marmalade cooked over the last 3 days.
I use a different technique to the usual one.
I boil the whole fruit (scrubbed clean) first, reserving the boiling liquid, then as the fruit cools I cut in half to remove & save seeds.
Then pull out the flesh which is pressed through a course sieve (in my case an old deep fryer basket) to get the remaining juice. The segment flesh is also reserved.
Then cut to flatten the rinds, cut off the pith much like skinning a fish fillet (with a sharp thin bladed steak knife) which again is reserved. Then use a food processer to chop the rind.
Since I had 3 large buckets of fruit, that amount took a day & almost a whole night (17hrs) to process.
Last thing as I finished processing the fruit at around 3am, I reheated the original boiling liquid so it didn't begin to ferment the next day because I had started this process at around 9am the previous morning!
Over the next 2 days I made the 2 batches of marmalade which took around 3hrs each to complete.
I mixed the reserved pith, seeds & segments & divided in half & placed into muslin bags (one for each batch of jam).
Each batch was measured & sterile water added (from sterilizing the jars) to make the volume up to 14cups.
Then simmered to soften rind until it will squish into a paste between thumb & finger, then cooled a little, total time around 2hrs.
Finally measured the volume again & sugar added in a 1:1 ratio. Then rapidly boiled to setting point 225F/104.5C.
I let it cool a little then bottle & cap so the caps seal (lids pop down) as the jam cools. My jam lasts many years this way.
I could have made it much thinner (ie increased the volume considerably) but I like a full flavoured, fairly firm, dense jam with lots of peel. This means I use much less on my toast!

In all it made about 5lt marmalade & still have some left from 2015, so with these I now have 2yrs supply even after giving some away.

 

Looks awesome. The outside bottles don't matter it's the yummy insides that do. It's a lot of work but you sure appreciate the time and effort when you eat the contents. Really are eating the fruits of your labour.

Well done