Nanna's frozen berries Hep A should be a wake-up call

Ta LoveInNature, Mark is a valuable source for preserving stuff too. I watch his preserving videos and I give it a go. If I am not sure about something I just ask. I have been lucky that whatever I was making turns out good. That's gives me the confident to make other stuff

 

I am still finding my way around and I am glad to have the time to do this today. I found the showcase section and am really loving the reviews and discovering new fruit and vegs. I really want to give making cheese a go. I have heard about this pub in Yandina that holds courses during the year which are excellent value. They teach you, provide all the equipment that you take home with you and the produce from the course. I will do a bit more research and put up the details.

 

Another place where you will find people who give lessons on cheese making is at the Blue House at Yandina. It's the Permaculture place. They have speakers most Saturday mornings & the lady who talks about cheese & keffir, etc also gives group lessons.

http://yandinacommunitygardens.com.au/
2017 workshops:-
http://yandinacommunitygardens.com.au/?page_id=40

Somewhere I have details of 2 other women who do workshops. I'll track them down.

 

It may have been this place and they stayed at the pub overnight. Thank-you!

 

Please share your Christmas Pudding recipe.

 

Mary, please explain what you mean by the above statement. To me,, chook being a chicken means your afraid of peppers. I get the feeling you don't mean this.

 

LOL, yea, I am a big chicken when it comes to hot peppers. Well, in my case chilli, that is what I have growing in my garden. I can only eat 1 or 2 chilli at a time because they are bloody hot LOL. Yes, chook is an Aussie term for chicken.

Here, we call bell peppers capsicum and the rest chilli and hot peppers. But if you ask someone the variety then they will tell you its a banana pepper or jalapeno....etc. However, if you are a pepper enthusiast you will know each pepper by their actual name. But then, it could just be me… lazy

 

Here are the 2 pudding recipes I am doing

Fruit Pudding step by step recipe

Step 1
Add 250 gr sultanas, 250 gr raisins, 250 gr currants, 185 gr mixed peel, 1 1/2 tsps mixed spice, 2 Tbsps glazed cherries to a large bowl stir in 1 cup raw sugar , 2/3 cup treacle or can use golden syrup, 3 Tbsps brandy (optional). Stir well, cover in fridge overnight

Step 2
Next morning add 600 mil milk, 2 eggs , 250 gr SR flour, 3 cups fresh breadcrumbs ,185 gr grated suet , mix well

Step 3
Wash and rinse 6 x no 28 fit rubber rings and butter inside of jars

* 7 wide mouth pints can be used

Step 4
Divide pudding mix into jars , leaving 4cm headspace, wiped rims.

Step 5
Place in waterbath , cover with warm water making sure to cover by at least 4cm

Step 6
Process on hold boil for 210 min, turn off heat wait ten minutes, remove and stand until completely cool


**The lady mentioned that she doubled the recipe to get 7 jars
gr = gram


Sticky Date and Raisin

500gr stoned dates, roughly chopped

300g raisins

400ml milk

3cups fresh bread crumbs

140g suet

100g soft brown sugar

2 large eggs

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

zest 1 orange

60 mil dark rum or brandy *optional

Put the dates, raisins, milk and brandy or rum in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 mins until the fruit is soft and the liquid has been absorbed, it looks curdled but its ok, let cool. Butter 6 puddings jars and add rings. Rub the grated suet into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

Add the mixed spice, orange zest and breadcrumbs. Stir in date mixture and a pinch of salt, whisk eggs and sugar and stir everything well divide between jars should have 5cms headspace. Move a spatula around the jar to remove air bubbles, wipe rims and seal with a vinegar cloth ,seal jar with lid and 2 clamps process 180 min hold boil check water level and top up with boiling water if needed

**Note: Australians’ uses Fowlers jars hence the 2 clamps in the recipe. You can use Balls Wide Mouth Jars, so they will slide out easily. I am also going to try and make some in the half pint. Oh, you can use packet suet too.

I am not sure how many Ball jars to use for the one recipe but I have enough backups I only use the ball/mason jars and others that don’t look complicated LOL. I don’t know anything about fowlers.

If you are on facebook, I am under this name, add me and I will invite you to our preserving/canning group. There, you can ask further queries about the pudding and blah.

 

folks,
I'm based in Canada and due to the cold winters we have to buy most of our fresh produce during winter as imports. Some limited fresh produce is available locally during winter, however, green house grown. I'm also leery of any food products originating in China.
That said we've had numerous recalls on lettuce and other fresh produce originating in the Southern U.S. contaminated with such as E. Coli, listeria, etc....
Personally I believe our commercial food chain is badly broken no matter where you live and pretty much the only safe options is locally grown organic produce(quite expensive I might add) and preferably what we can grown ourselves weather permitting.

Regards from Canada
Bill

 

Mary,
Thanks for the chuckles. We grow habanero peppers and my wife adds them to some of her recipes for preserved salsas and chutneys. These peppers will curl your hair and possibly your toes also...lol.

 

Its astonishing where these infections come from.
E-coli usually comes from animal or human manure so you'd think an organic garden where this type of fertilizer is used more regularly, would be more at risk. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
Yet commercial farms that use manure and municipal waste waters do seem to have problems.
How can this be? They are supposed to treat the waters down to certain contamination levels that don't cause concern.
But in next to no time those farms are recalling product.
Or maybe its not the farm or its usage of waste at all.
Maybe its the consumer to blame. Perhaps people nolonger have the necessary bacteria in their systems to counteract these minor infectious elements.
All these cleaning products and lack of contact with the soil serve to reduce our immune systems to meer shadows of their former capacities.

 

ClissAT, Not certain if it's true or not, however, I had read that some farmers were liquifying the manure prior to composting to save time and using on crops. Well if that's the case odds are it's still full of pathogens at that point.
Regards from Canada
Bill

 

You could be right there Bill, regarding the Canadian farmers, but what about those around the rest of the world?
Spain has had a few episodes of contamination. Various states of USA. Even in EU.
This happens on every continent including Australia which has THE most strict rules on everything.
For our farmers to use waste as fertilizer it must've gone through major treatment before leaving the factory of origin.
There's no opportunity for farmers here to adulterate the end product.

But we must get in top of this dilemma because we can't continue to waste our waste!