Welcome!

[mrs_tribble]

Welcome to all who love to dabble in the business of pickling and preserving! I used to help my grandmother with this when I was a child (most of my most treasured memories involve my grandmother and myself preparing enormous amounts of vegetables from the allotment prior to storing - or a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon and lots of lovely cake ingredients).

Now that I have a permanent base with my partner of four years I have picked up this craft again. I began with cabbage and eggs, but have also successfully made chutney, onion and rosemary confiturra and piccalilli from scratch.






Red Onion and Rosemary Confiturra




First batch of Piccalilli. Since it was made the colour has settled from this honey gold to a far more recognisable mustard yellow




My anything-goes "Tribble Towers" Chutney. So-named because Tribble Towers is what we call our home!


I'm more than happy to share recipes of all of these goodies - just ask!

Firstly though, I'd like you all to pull up a chair around the kitchen table and use this post to get to know each other.

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

Hi,

I hope it's okay to join you. I'm pretty new to trying to preserve anything. I had a go at jam a few years back with only moderate success but then nothing after that until this Christmas. Times being what they are I was looking to make some more personal gifts rather than going down the 'expensive' line and so came my first attempts at vanilla essence and an apple and cranberry chutney. I don't have pictures at the moment - but could post one of the jars that were left and are now sitting in my cupboard if people wanted.

I'm hoping that by joining you I'll be able to get some ideas for future projects and also tips to avoid disasters - jam like glass or too runny to stay on the toast! I'm also willing to share any recipes that I have got to work *grin* like the chutney - which is pretty good with bread and cheese (even if I am saying so myself ;P)

Good wishes to you all. x

[mrs_tribble]

Lovely to meet you - welcome!

My hope is that people from beginner to experienced can come together and trade ideas and tips. I'd love some pics if you have them, and I'm sure that all members will have tales to share of what to do and what not to do.

I'll be posting recipes for my concoctions, and hopefully I shall be learning other recipes from members :)

[katarik]

I'm just starting to learn basic preserving, but several meatspace friends have experience to greater or lesser degrees. Hopefully I'll be able to glean wisdom from meatspace and internet places!

[mrs_tribble]

I'm certainly not an expert myself, and am hoping that people from all levels of experience will find us and contribute their wisdom :D

[pippa_tea]

Hello,

I've always wanted to learn how to can and found this group soon after I joined. Exciting!

[mrs_tribble]

Nice to meet you - welcome!

And I love your icon; I once had a diary with that painting on the cover! So beautiful, and now I don't remember what it was called!

[pippa_tea]

It's called Spirit of the Night by John Atkinson Grimshaw. I love all of his art!

[yady]

Hi,

gipsy_dreamer knows me already from elsewhere. I don't have much experience with preserving beyond the occasional jam experiment, but I love cooking in general and a bit of inspiration to try new things is always welcome...

[mrs_tribble]

Lovely to see you here hon; hopefully we can inspire each other to greatness :D

[delladea]

Hello there! I found this community from the entry in dw_community_promo.

I've gotten more experience in canning and preserving this last year when we had a small garden. The first freeze killed my pepper and tomato plants, so I was left with lots of jalpeños and baby green tomatoes I couldn't bear wasting. I ended up pickling them all and it turned out pretty well. This year I'm hoping to have a much bigger garden.

Jams, jellies and chutneys are things I don't do much of. I've made marmalade and peach jam before, and every year at thanksgiving I make canned homemade cranberry sauce to give to my family.

I always like seeing different recipes. I may share some of mine since some of them are pretty easy. :D

[mrs_tribble]

Mmmmm, cranberry sauce - I'd love to make some ready for next Christmas!

We only have a small vegetable patch and our greenhouse, but during the summer months we're never short of the sweetest tomatoes I've ever tasted! We also grow carrots, mange tout, radishes (again, so much sweeter than anything in the supermarket) and had a very good success rate with beetroot this year. I hadn't thought about pickling at the time, but we quickly discovered that leftover beets add wonderful texture and colour to chilli, stews and bologneise! I have some quite long flower borders that never seem to get completely filled in, so I might begin hiding vegetables in amongst the flowers, as is now quite popular in large town centres across England :)

[biting_moopie]

Hi! I've always been interested in making pickles and preserves but never got around to trying. This seems like the perfect time to try!

[mrs_tribble]

Hi, great to have you! I'm really only a beginner myself, but I am absolutely hooked on pickling/preserving now - and have been since I pickled (canned) my first cabbage.

Looking forward to getting to know you, and sharing stories and experience :)

[biting_moopie]

Aw, thank you! Me too :)

[daeseage]

Hello!

I've never tried preserving, but I've got the space for it right now, and I've like a better way to store salsas and chutneys and things. Freezer bags with the excess only work so long, and you can't give them away to friends in pretty packages! =]

I hope to learn some good tips and tricks from you folks!

[mrs_tribble]

Nice to have you - thank you for joining and I hope you have fun here :)