aftermidnight
Garden Addicted
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2014
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- Vancouver Island B.C. Canada
Now is the time of year, I make my jams and jellies, today it's Paradise Jelly, a mix of quince, apples and cranberries. I juice the fruit in season and then stick in the freezer until this time of year, this way I miss that sweating over the stove in the summer and early fall when I'm busy in the garden. The years have taken their toll and I can no longer do... or maybe it's just I don't want to bust my rear anymore LOL. When I took the juice out of the freezer the quince juice had a bit of a fermented smell to it, I hope it's O.K. as one lot of jelly is already made, and another is ready to go, maybe it will taste a little zippy
.
The reason for the mad frenzy is the little freezer I bought to store my bean seed in is full of berries and juice and I need to free up space for all the bean seed now thoroughly dried and is perched on every ledge and vacant spot I could find, that with a kitty who likes to bat everything she can get her paw on onto the floor it's been fun, precious little thing that she is, sometimes....
Next will be the freezer raspberry jam, much preferred to the cooked version, some raspberry juice thickened up with sugar for sundae toppings, this also frozen. The blackberries still have to be juiced and made into jelly, I'll also make some sauce for whatever and freeze that too. The only jam I make in season is strawberry, the cooked version but then I freeze it, it all comes down to taste, which way we prefer it. I used to make raspberry vinegar but I have found a place to buy the most amazing raspberry balsamic vinegar I don't think I'll ever make it again.
Do any of you hold off until the winter months to do this sort of thing, I find it passes the time when stuck in the house when the garden is either soggy wet, frozen or under a foot or so of snow. We actually have snow this year, last year not so much as a flake and very mild other then a bit of a freeze the first two weeks in November. This year we're having a winter, freezing temps, snow, yep, a real winter, no running around in shirtsleeves this time round.
What all do you do all you gardeners do to get through the winter, that is if you live in a place that actually gets one.
Annette
The reason for the mad frenzy is the little freezer I bought to store my bean seed in is full of berries and juice and I need to free up space for all the bean seed now thoroughly dried and is perched on every ledge and vacant spot I could find, that with a kitty who likes to bat everything she can get her paw on onto the floor it's been fun, precious little thing that she is, sometimes....
Next will be the freezer raspberry jam, much preferred to the cooked version, some raspberry juice thickened up with sugar for sundae toppings, this also frozen. The blackberries still have to be juiced and made into jelly, I'll also make some sauce for whatever and freeze that too. The only jam I make in season is strawberry, the cooked version but then I freeze it, it all comes down to taste, which way we prefer it. I used to make raspberry vinegar but I have found a place to buy the most amazing raspberry balsamic vinegar I don't think I'll ever make it again.
Do any of you hold off until the winter months to do this sort of thing, I find it passes the time when stuck in the house when the garden is either soggy wet, frozen or under a foot or so of snow. We actually have snow this year, last year not so much as a flake and very mild other then a bit of a freeze the first two weeks in November. This year we're having a winter, freezing temps, snow, yep, a real winter, no running around in shirtsleeves this time round.
What all do you do all you gardeners do to get through the winter, that is if you live in a place that actually gets one.
Annette