I tried to preserve fruit. I reallllly tried. Twice.
But you know what? The first time I ended up with two jars full of mostly syrup and the next time I, stupidly, followed a recipe and didn't do the sugar by taste. You guessed it, the apples were so sweet I couldn't even swallow the spoonful I attempted. And in true Rhiannon style I had already sealed three jars!
I was pretty upset at first, not only because of the wasted time and ingredients, but mostly because I was really keen to be the sort of woman who could fill the cupboards with jars of fruit and vegies, and of jam and chutney. I love how those rows of preserves look and I love the idea of saving money and hoarding things away. I love the idea of doing things that my female ancestors would have done for their families.
But then I came to a conclusion that has set my mind at ease.
No one person can be good at everything.
I'm pretty good at baking, I can do a bit of sewing, a bit of knitting, I can cook a great meal, I can do crosswords, I can finish a duathlon (two in fact! Another tick off the list!). I can do many things, and some of them quite well, if I do say so myself.
So, if the trade off for being good at those things is failing miserably at preserving, and we have to eat all of our fruit fresh and in season, and buy our jam from the market (or even the supermarket shelf) for the rest of our lives, then I'm okay with that.
Ka Pai you. Maybe we could attempt guava jelly?
ReplyDeletegood on you for trying!!! I am too chicken to even give it a go. the idea of sterilising jars properly completely freaks me out yet what I'd give for a homemade jar of tomato relish this week...mmmmmm
ReplyDeletewell done for trying! That was me with fig jam i tried a few year ago and failed miserably, but i tried again this year and there was a bit of improvement. have a break and then have another go when your ready!
ReplyDeleteand good luck with your market!
I have a hard time making jam, my husband often reminds me "I thought you were meant to be having fun" um, not set properly, set too much, going mouldy! I'm not ready to give up just yet, but wasting all that produce really annoys me. I hope the other things on your list are going better.
ReplyDeleteYou are so very wise. In any case it would just be showing off to be good at everything. I too have dreams of a well stocked larder but although my perserveing is (usually) trouble free, my problem is actually doing it. In fact I have, at this moment, a box of apples rotting in my kitchen. So much laziness!
ReplyDeletemaybe you could add some rhubarb to the too sweet apples and balance it out a bit ? then you can make pies, crumbles and muffins with them ... they still look pretty with their turquoise lids :)
ReplyDeleteuse the apples for crumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nom nom nom
ReplyDeleteI had a massive preserve fail too - I tried doing plums (plums for heavens sake! who in their right minds...?) and they were soggy and awful, so now most of them are now in sauce form! Kudos for at least getting them to the jar stage =)
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