The Canning Lady

[Kath]

Rachel will can anything except her doormat.  It's an American thing, but it has real merit.

 

[splitinfinitive]

I notice that although it's called canning the process involves not cans, but jars.

My mother and her friends all "bottled" fruit and made jam back in the 50s, I don't know anyone who has the time and patience for it now thought. I had a surplus of kumquats a few years back and made kumquat liqueur.

[Kath]

Yes, it is jars, I have some of those, I make sweet chili sauce that's to die for and jar them, I don't need to pressure them.  If I was a few years younger (I'm into my 70s now) I would buy a canner, if I grew a great amount of produce.  I don't, I only grow what I can eat fresh, just a few plants that can keep one person fully supplied with fresh produce, I'm doing OK with that.  I'm still eating French beans off my plants, I guess I will have a lot more yet.

[splitinfinitive]

When I was a kid back in the 50s we lived in a small rural town and every "season" trucks would come around with crates and half crates of fruit from the riverland orchards... oranges, apples, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines.... I'd say that a crate held about 10 kilos... maybe 20lb.

We would gorge on the fresh fruit and them Mum would preserve the rest or make jam.

Preserved peaches with hot custard was a much looked forward to winter desert in those days. ...or "up-side-down pudding"!

[Kath]

Home bottled fruit is fabulous, tinned or frozen is just not up to scratch.

As I said, I just make chili sauce, piccalilly,  chutney,  lemon & lime marmalade and jam. I depend on my freezer for saving vegetables.  I also do batch cooking, when I make bolognese sauce, sweet and sour, curry, casseroles and many other dishes, I make enough for 4, I eat one and portion and freeze the rest.  I always have some quick meal in there if I don't feel like cooking..

When we had the fitted kitchen put  in we got a integrated fridge freezer.  So sad, I had to sell my lovely large fridge freezer because it wouldn't fit in with the design, but the one I have now is nowhere near big enough for my needs.  I'm looking at equity release to get some extra money to do other house improvements and getting a larger fridge freezer again to regain my sanity.  I don't care if it spoils the design, I need substance over style as they say.

I may turn the old space for the integrated fridge freezer into a pull out larder and cupboard, get rid of the larder I already have and replace it with a new large free standing fridge freezer, that's my plan.

[splitinfinitive]

I'm a "Banzai" shopper when it comes to looking for bargains.... a few years back I searched long and hard and found a huge two door Samsung fridge for about 30% of the original price.

 

[Kath]

I have to wait for the equity release to go through.   Then the search will begin.  The one I have at the moment is really playing up and I have to clear the glacier of ice from the 2 top drawers on a weekly basis.  Goodness knows what that freezer is doing to my electricity bill.

I don't really want what they call an 'American Fridge Freezer', that would take up too much space, I just want a large upright fridge freezer with more capacity than I have now.  The thing is, when I see all the measurement and capacities on websites, it means nothing to me.  I need to physically see if it will be what I want.

 

[Kath]

Here we are again with more interesting food related videos.

Here is Rachel an Todd again (I'm beginning to think they're not poor)  

and then another view of her pantry

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Kath