I just love the start of summer and the beautiful fruit that comes with it. We had a small orchard when we bought the house with a few fruit trees - most need a bit of TLC. However, the apricot tree had about 5kg of fruit on it so after eating a few straight off the tree, we rescued the rest from the birds. Family also brought a box up from our favourite old veggie store in Bacchus Marsh, so in total we preserved and jammed 15kg of fruit Christmas Eve (mind you, finished the pav at midnight, but it was really yummy!!).
I have made jam for quite a few years and was lucky enough to be given a Fowlers Preserving kit by a very dear old friend with boxes of jars. I hadn't really used them before until last year (because you start preserving when you're moving house???? NOT!!) as we had a peach tree we had planted in our garden in Melbourne and of course the first year it fruited was our last year in the house so I bottled it all up and brought it with us!!! So of course now I have been scouring all the garage sales and collecting the Fowlers jars.
It is really rewarding to know that a couple of days work will provide yummy fruit (for fabulous Apricot Chicken in the slow cooker) and jam for the rest of the year!!! I know preserving is something 'Nanna' used to do, but give it a go.....it's fantastic!!
Happy Cooking, Sam
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