Because I had a lot to get through and limited time, this year I did the following: For most of the fruit, I washed it, removing any stems, then put (in batches) into a big pot with an inch or so of water to start it off, bought to the boil and cooked until soft enough to mash. Mashed, then used the back of a spoon to press the flesh through the largest food mill "sieve" I have (couldn't use the normal winding part of the mill as the stones just jammed it up), then picked out all the stones with a spoon before adding the skins back to the fruit. I then went ahead with whatever I was going to make. I did remove stones from raw fruit by hand for the feijoa and plum combo, but then decided I just don't have time. The downside of doing it this way is the stones can make the fruit taste more bitter, but it's fine for making sweeter things like jams etc. | I made two different lots of jam - one like normal, the other with less sugar and deliberately aiming for a softer, less set jam. That's because those jars will be used again to make dressings and plum sauce down the track, but I didn't have time for that now; making the soft jam as a base saves time and gets it all preserved. Not that it has to be soft; just didn't seem necessary to cook as long, but at the end of the day it set pretty well anyway, as damsons are high in pectin. |
I also defrosted a container of last year's feijoas and cooked those up with some plums and a little sugar. When I bottled them, there was quite a lot of left over liquid, so I strained it through a muslin cloth and turned it into jelly, just because I could. Looks gorgeous.
I also bottled some plain stewed plums with some honey to sweeten a bit, but left deliberately quite tart. Later I plan to add to this with stewed apples or other fruits and rebottle or make into pies or whatever. I can adjust the sweetness accordingly.
Also pictured above is a batch of cucumber pickle I made at the same time, to use up the cucumbers my neighbour gave me as hers started producing before mine.
Use the slideshow below for closer pics of each product.
I'll leave you with a pic of the first harvest of nectarines from a seedling my son dug up from the side of the road, that had sprung from a discarded pit, and I've had sitting in a pot ever since. This winter I plan to plant it out, along with more fruit trees, in part of where my pumpkin patch currently is. They were yum!!