Don't forget the apples....

[Pipsmum]

....and other fruits. Gather and store all the freebies from mother nature. Freeze, pickle and ferment away.

Cider is pretty easy from windfalls. Tons of recipes on the net and use either their own natural yeasts or buy some cider yeast. Those water containers make good demijohns as do ordinary 2L plastic water bottles with their lids left loose....

I repeat loudly.... WITH THEIR LIDS LEFT LOOSE.... and mean it.... as one who forgot to loosen it once, and ended up with an explosion of apple pulp all over the ceiling and dripping great clods of it from myself whilst my children were crying and rolling on the floor with uncontrollable laughter.

[johnstevens77]

We have 7 apple trees and have been processing apples since the first windfalls in early September. For the smaller apples, I pick them up and also any wormy ones that I see on the trees, wash them, cut out any bad bits etc., no need to core or peel, cut into wedges or whatever is left of the apple and put them into a pan with a little water and a half squeezed lemon juice plus the remains of the lemon, cover with a lid or use alu foil and cook until mashed. I then rub the pulp through a sieve and return it to the pan to cook until thick with a little sugar and a good knob of butter, it will need constant stirring with a wooden jam spatula at this point or it will burn. Put into hot sterilised jars and seal with a good lid. I use any old jam jars or preserving bottles. They will keep in a dark place for at least 9 months and we use it for tarts, on porridge as it is or with yoghurt or cream.

The larger windfalls that are in reasonably good condition are peeled, cored, and quartered and placed into a bowl of salted water and processed in a pressure cooker according to "Good Housekeeping's" 1972 cook book. Sterilise your peserving jars in the oven. Rinse and blanch the harder eating apples in boiling water until a bit soft, pack them into the hot jars, fill with hot syrup*, I use 6ozs sugar per pint, put the lids on and loosen a quarter turn, put thm into a pressure cooker bring to the boil, put the lid on with a 5lbs/low weight and take about 3 minutes to come up to pressure, continue cooking at pressure for 1 (one) minute, remove from the heat and let cool. When the pressure is off remove the jars, top up with boiling syrup and seal. For softer cooking/eating apples, I do not blanch them but put them straight into the hot jars and process same way. They will last until next year's crop is on the way and can be used for pies, eve's pudding, crumbles, tarts, steamed sponge pudding, as they are or whatever you want.

* I boil the syrup for 5 minutes with lemon zest and juice, cloves, cinnamon stick, bayleaves and coriander seeds and infuse for 20 mins, strain before using. Any left over can be refrigerated and used again. I also use the same syrup for my brandy sour.

We have several jars of apples mixed with wild blackberry's, sultanas and damsons. The latter also from the garden. I also use dates, and prunes for variety.

Waste not want not.

john