I looked and I couldn’t actually see a thread for preserves other than fermented foods . And as I’ve been very busy preserving / making Jam / giving away my bumper crop of Apricots I thought I’d share some of my exhausting work ..I’m 77 next week so I feel I’ve got to cut back on some of the preserving work next year ..and that’s in the process right now by giving our apricot tree that not all that big anyway a huge prune. Of the apricots we weighed we picked 80 kg of fruit ..dried 40 kg ( weight with stones removed) Preserved 10-12 kg same thing weight with stones removed …made 5 kg into Jam …gave away heaps we picked for friends to come collect So here I go prob boring you ….. First of all I resent eating foods for overseas countries and I like growing eating chemical free foods which all my home grown veg and fruit are. Just some of my preserves I did this summer
Jam in one cup size 8 once ball mason jars 1 made 18 jars ..two were missing here cause they were in the fridge
About half the preserves some in my preferred pint BM size jars where I used Rocco Italian made lids for some jars that sealed well and I believe are reusable ..so I don’t think I will go chasing BM lids anymore when these Rocco lids do an excellent jobs not one failure The others with glass lids are Weck they are a tiny bit over heated ( fruit raised from bottom of jar ) but it dose not effect the fruit taste / appearance
Fruit out in shed where we process it after it’s been washed / bottled inside in kitchen opps have to alter photo
Preserving food is lots of work. Those are beautiful, Kate. I love apricots! I can almost taste them, yum.
It will last in cupboard I have some that’s 3 years old and still looks the same as when I bottled it @Beth Gallagher
What about our 40 kg we dried that yielded us just under 5 kg of dried apricots We keep the dried fruit in the freezer because dried fruit can get bugs in it just like any fresh fruit so it’s best to keep in freezer. We dry them in part shade under a carport area This is half our dried apricots
Those apples look really good, Kate. I can taste them in an apple pie or turnovers. I use to freeze apples to make pies and such, but I haven't done that for years.