General Chat

Yes,pickled onions are next on the list ,I've bought the vinegar and the shallots have been dug up and are drying out,have been reading how to do it ,thought I just had to put the onions in vinegar but it seems I have to put them in brine for a while first.

Daisy

Jean,there is NO substitute for a pickled onion!!!!

Tartiness is one of the nice things about homemade jam, so much less sugar and more fruity tasting. You can add more sugar if you wish, but not to much or it will granulate the jam.
One of the other things we used to do was pickled onions. That was before they started to disagree with us. if you run out of onions for cooking, a pickled onion makes a good substitute.

Iris and Jean,

Thankyou for your replies,I've just had a go making some raspberry jam this morning but when it was finished it was so full of seeds the little grandchildren wouldn't have ate it so I had to put it through a seive,hard work ,I do find the jams I have made are a little on the tarty side ,which I don't mind even though I have followed the quantities to the letter is it alright to add more sugar when cooking or would the jam not set right.

Daisy

Never heard of that Sharron.
It sounds interesting...and delicious.

Has anyone tried bullace,- a wild plum?
I think that's what I found and ate recently, although they were sweet enough to eat raw, so maybe they were an 'escaped' garden variety.
They were yellow and small, rather like size of damsons.


Gwyn

Our wonderful old Victoria plum dveloped silver leaf and died.Very sad.

I am hoping people will have a lot of green tomatoes left at the end of the season this year as we ran out of green tomato mincemeat last year.Mostly because it is so delicious on toast.

It has a tiny amount of fat in it and that is a bit of butter so it doesn't have that horrible chammy texture of ordinary mincemeat.

I will put the recipe on here later,when I dig it out for this year.

Well I am disappointed Dawn..... a few plums in a wee pie....
Is that too much to ask for?? ;-0)

Good night all,
Deanna X

Fresh as a daisy, home made jam made your way will keep for years. It may go a bit solid, but still edible.
The jam I made was all eaten one way or another, by us three and friends and relatives who dared to comment how nice it was! When our son left home, he would go back from visiting us with a car boot almost full of home produce for him and his mates.

Deanna
they dont last long enough to get to the pie stage lol

Sylvia
we dont eat many fresh tomatoe but daughter loves roasted tomoato soup so they get used for that shes had 3 lots so far this year and her boyfriend loves it as well so doesnt last long lol. and Blackberrie shave had loads this year off the plant we bought last year and the guy on allotment a couple up admitted he had tried them as well, raspberries were gorgeous as were the strawberries but lethal letting tiddler up the allotment to pick them was two for her mouth one for pot.

daisy,
jam made properly and stored in a cool dark place will keep for a year or more , i've still got some from last year and its still fine , just check it once in a while...
jean , what did you do with 300lbs of jam ?...
iris

Several years back we bought a Victoria plum tree from T**co. When it developed fruit we realised it wasn't a Victoria as the plums are dark purple. Everyone loves them and we give them away as it produces so many: this year they were all ripe in July and the wasps have just finished up the last of them! We know it's not a damson tree but does anyone know what kind of plums they are?

Oh yes Dawn,
plum pies, plum jam, plums in the fruit bowl...... enjoy them Dawnie.
Deanna X

Hi All, we have just started eating our victoria plums, They are so sweet. We had hundreds of cherries this year and the golden delicious apples are looking good. Tomatoes nearly ready to. Been a good year for fruit
Sylvia

This year is the first year I have made jam,I've made strawberry and rhubarb and apple and I'm really pleased as it tastes so nice I've made it using fruit,preserving sugar and packets of powdered pectin and I only made a few jars as I'm not sure how long it will keep ,does it keep for months or only weeks.

Daisy

This is best year for them out of this tree but its only about 8 years old, the apple tree is laden as well which is a surprise as we moved them this year but have made them fan out so getting more air to fruit so could be why.

Jean
my jams so far this year have been Jostaberry, Raspberry, Strawberry and Blackberry.
Made a victoria sandwich yesterday with the Raspberry jam in it was lovely.

Gosh you are lucky Dawnie - our tree has very few plums this year. Shame because we love them lol We also have a Bramley apple tree and although it's laden - the apples are the size of plums.

When we were young and not diabetic I made about 300 lbs of jam every year, plums, goooseberry, damson, apple and blackberry and so on. I have tried making diabetic jam and it works fine, but is also expensive to make. Nothing beats home made jam for taste. When food was rationed Mum used to make little fruit buns and small individual jam tarts, so no one got more than their fair share of rations.

Oh Dawnie don't, I used to have a super tree that gave me loads but we had to leave it behind when we moved, somehow I couldn't see it in a plantpot. I love them and ate loads then made jam and pies, oh if only I dare go back and pinch a few, lol.

Caz xx

Hi
I have a victoria plum tree loads of plums on it this year I dont like them so i pick them and give them to neighbours better than wasting them
one of them makes jam and she always gives me a big jar of it

*licks lips.....time to make a pie,maybe? lol BCXXX