When the fruit trees all became ripe at the same time, there is only so much eating you can do before alternatives need to be sought.
The attempts to stay on top of the fruit load would have seen us (and our neighbours and friends) looking like plums or nectarines. We just couldn't keep up.
So, my dear sweet husband got busy. First he started with the beetroot. Then the plums. And nectarines.
There was plum jam, stewed plums, cold-packed plums. Plums with rhubarb. Then nectarines in syrup.
And as he preserved, we were madly picking more fruit until there was no bench space for anything other than beautiful red preserves.
Most are labelled now, and put away until eating time. It was a little crazy there for a while. But now we are satisfied in knowing that nothing was wasted, there is plenty of lovely food in our pantry, and we (and others) can enjoy stone fruits and beetroot for the rest of the year.
Do you preserve your garden produce?
oh this makes my heart sing Kymmie! what wonders...and again a little weird as a posted a little red preserving myself (on a much smaller scale though!) xx
ReplyDeleteWow. This looks amazing. I struggled to deal with fruit from just one peach tree (note to self: find recipes BEFORE they ripen, not after.)
ReplyDeleteThese look so delicious, and I imagine they will taste better for all the hard work that went into it. x
We love summer fruits here and eat lots of them, but this year our trees were pretty low.
ReplyDeleteOur family Mulberry tree was sat in over Christmas and by the end of the couple of days it was nearly empty. The kids sat up there for hours!