Preserving your fruit and veg
It’s that time of year when lots of fruit and veg is ready for harvesting in abundance. It’s great to grow your own, but in most cases it is ripe for eating all at once and you have too much to eat and don’t want to waste it. The traditional way of dealing with this issue was to preserve anything that was left over, and so jam & chutney making, pickling, fermenting (including beer etc!) and salting came in really handy so they had food over the colder months.
Nowadays, we do still use a lot of these products in our every day use throughout the year. We have noticed recently that more people are wanting to grow their own fruit and veg again, and so jam making and homebrew have become ever more popular. Although it’s great to make use of the left over fruit and veg, it is still very rewarding to make your own jams etc even if you have to buy items from the shop!
Here’s a tried and tested Chilli Jam recipe from Andrew our homebrew expert. He also has an allotment to grow his own fruit and veg and he loves chillies!!!
Chilli Jam
Ingredients:
8 red peppers, de-seeded and chopped
8 red chillies, chopped
5cm piece of root ginger, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
750g granulated sugar
250ml red wine vinegar
Method:
Combine all the ingredients in a large pan. Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil and skim off any scum that has formed.
Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
Raise the heat slightly and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Allow to cool slightly, then spoon into hot sterilised jars.
Cover and seal.
Makes approximately four 8oz jars
