Preserving Season 2008-2009

10 December 2008 - Cherries

Cherries are always first off the blocks here. The next in line is usually nectarines, or I can also make jam from the bitter, bitter cherry plums from the next-door neighbours yard. Whilst visiting my brother on Sunday I bought 15kg of slightly-too-small-for-market cherries from a nearby orchard, for $2 per kilogram. I took yesterday off work and spent a day pipping and bottling cherries instead, which I have to admit was much more satisfying. ;-)

The production line. The cherries start in the red bag, then are tipped out into the largest bowl. Then they have their stems removed and placed into the medium bowl. Once the medium bowl is full, I sit in front of it with the 4th bowl in my lap and the pipping pliers in my hand.
The "output" bowl and the pipping pliers. They were definitely $22 well spent.
Cherry juice ends up everywhere. I had to wash my face, arms, legs, floor and walls when I was done.

The 4 stages of Fowler's Vacola preserving. From left to right:
Empty jar;
Jar packed with fruit;
Topped up with syrup, sealing ring fitted;
Lid in place with retaining clip (ready for sterilising).
All finished. The jars on the far right have cooled, and I have removed their clips (these are only needed to hold the lids in place while the jars are being sterilised).

January 2008 - Apricots

We had 3 batches of apricots, the first from a roadside tree and the other 2 from a tree in my sister's backyard that yielded a total of 220kg of apricots.

Batch 1 apricots - about 10kg from a roadside tree.
The processing work area.
Well underway now. The apricots were halved, stones were removed, then they were packed into assorted glass jars.

You need to put the first few in place using a spoon or some similar tool.
Well-packed jars.
Packed jars ready for the water bath.

Batch 2 apricots - approximately 70kg. (The 3 buckets nearest the camera are plums).
The results of the batch 2 apricots - apricot halves and apricot jam. We made 20 more jars of apricot halves, but they were shared with the 2 other people on the preserving team.

January 2008 - Peaches

A workmate has a rather nice peach tree in his front yard. The best part is, he only lives about 150m down the street from us.

Some peaches.

16 March 2008 - The Amazing Maize Maze!

I harvested the last of our sweet corn yesterday. Come on, you would have done the same!


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