Curried Apple Chutney from the Ball book

Curried Apple Chutney

Last summer I purchased the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. (not an affiliate link) It's a great resource for experienced and newbie canners alike. I want to try many of the recipes in the book, and yesterday, I got a headstart on canning apple goodies. The original plan was to do apples in season, but one should never walk away from a good deal or a free deal. Preserve it! It looks like apple season will be all about apple pie filling and that's okay. 

Chutney, sweet or savory, has always interested me. I had everything needed for the Curried Apple Chutney so last evening, I went to work and got it done. It didn't take too long to do, either. I spent about half an hour peeling apples, chopping the onion, and measuring out everything. The chutney needed to cook for about forty-five minutes, during which time I prepared the jars. Once the mix has cooked, it goes into the jars, and then it's time to follow a water-bath process for fifteen minutes. Then the jars came out, I tightened down the Tattler lids, and scampered off to my Kindle. 

Curried Apple Chutney jarred

First thing this morning I checked the jars, gleefully discovering all the seals are good. The book says the recipe makes ten pints, but no. It made twelve half-pints or only SIX full pints, and I measured everything very carefully since it was my first time using a recipe. Sometimes you get what you get. The Ball book is usually very accurate in the recipe yield, so I'll give them a pass on this one. 

I also learned something else this morning. Apparently, the Jarden company, which makes Ball jars, is now owned by the Newell company. Is this why we can't find metal lids? At this point, I'm liking the Tattler lids more and more. 

There are many additional recipes I want to try in the Ball book, but what I need to do next is simple apple jelly. As I peeled the apples last night, I saved the peels and the cores to cook along with some sliced apples to make the apple juice for the jelly. Waste not, want not as the old saying goes. The remaining pulp will go out in the woods for the little ones. I still have several jars of Caramel Apple Jam on the shelf, so no apple jam or apple butter this year. 

My coffee is cold and this entry is finished. It's time for a fresh cup and to check the weather forecast for the day. After that, who knows? The day will unfold, with or without a decent game plan.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

**You can find a bit more about this chutney here.**

Cherry jelly - first time making

Growing up country, having a cherry tree was not a big deal. My grandfather had several "wild" cherry trees that produced cherries growing in odd locations. Not every "wild" cherry bears fruit, so having several was quite a boon for my family. 

These trees produced an abundance of fruit, but the cherries were small. It took a lot of work to harvest enough fruit for everything my grandmother wanted to "put up," but it was worth it. I haven't had cherry jelly since she stopped canning. And I do mean jelly, not jam. She strained the pulp and used the clear juice. 

When I was making grape jelly a few short days ago, I saw that the Sure-Jell insert had the formula for cherry jelly. I finally had the chance to make a stop at the local fruit stand and brought home about four pounds of fruit, enough for one batch of jelly. 

Making the jelly was much the same as making the grape jelly. The cherries are cleaned then heated to release the juices. Being that I was making jelly and not jam, I didn't need to pit the cherries before heating them. My grandmother was no one's fool. She knew how to streamline the work and I learned from her. 

Once the cherries were hot, I used a potato masher to mash them. Then I added a splash of lemon juice to preserve the color, ladled the hot pulp into a jelly bag so the juice could strain out, and went on about my other chores. Several hours later I had three and a half cups of juice - just the correct amount for the Sure-Jell formula. 

The juice was transferred to a large pot and reheated, the pectin added, and the mixture brought to a roiling boil. After a minute, the entire four cups of sugar were added all at once while constantly stirring the mix. Yes, you have to have the sugar measured and ready to go in all at once. It's important to do it that way. 

After the sugar is added and the mixture is at a roiling boil again, set a timer for one minute and keep stirring until the timer goes off. Then remove the pot from the heat and jar the VERY HOT liquid. Process in a water bath according to your altitude. 

Just like with the grape jelly, I used the Tattler reusable lids. Tattler lids are made in the USA and last for years. 

I'm pleased with the results. There was just a little bit of jelly left in the pot that I scraped out and tasted. I think we'll really enjoy the cherry jelly next winter. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

The garden corral

In an effort to thwart the local deer, my veggie garden is a container garden located in what I'm calling The Garden Corral. 

The garden corral is located on what was our pool pad. To our sorrow, the Lord of the Manor can no longer safely get in and out of our little pool. Well, he can hold his nose and fall in, but it's the getting out we're not sure about. It's one more thing he's lost the ability to do as his overall health declines. Fifteen years ago chemotherapy saved his life, but the damage it did has lingered long after the cancer was dispatched. Life is a series of trade-offs. 

My little garden space is a work in progress. I started this year with grow bags and quickly graduated to 5-gallon buckets for the peppers. Next year will require something different for the cucumbers and radishes. The much-anticiapted strawberry grow bags are, in my opinion, a real bust. I don't like them so the strawberries have already been replanted. 

So on we go. 

I have fifteen buckets with peppers, thirteen grow bags with tomatoes, five grow bags with cucumbers, one with beets, one with carrots, one with a bush pumpkin, one with a bush watermelon, and one with sugar snap peas. 

The peppers are what I'm most interested in this year. With any luck, Cowboy Candy, pepper jelly, and a good amount of salsa will be added to the pantry. Past eating fresh tomatoes and making a few batches of salsa, I'm not sure what will be done with the tomatoes. We'll eat the watermelon, and I'll likely freeze the pumpkin puree. I tried canning pumpkin last year and never again. If I'm going to end up with mush, I'll just freeze mush. 

Will the harvest make me sorry I went on this journey? Perhaps, but the idea of having even a small amount of food in my pantry that I know has no preservatives in it is worth a little work. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

Lemon Drop Jelly -this is getting out of hand

 Today was another one of those days when I "worked at home" for the day job. I actually did get a few things done and I kept up on emails, so that was all to the good. I also did a load of laundry, took the dog for a windy - and short - walk, and I made a small batch of Lemon Drop Jelly. (Page 77 in one of the Ball books.) I also used the Tattler lids again. I think they're perfect for these types of projects. 

I like lemon, but Himself does not, so I halved everything but the pectin in the recipe. I'm quite sure that jelly is well set. 

I don't plan to make an abundance of jelly. Jellies and jams are high in sugar, ergo carbs, and we're trying to limit our carb consumption. I did invest in a jelly bag, something they didn't have when I was a girl first learning how to make jelly. My great-grandmother used a clean feed sack as a jelly bag. Of course, when she was making jelly it was a large batch requiring more than two cups of juice.

Seeing my pantry shelves filled with jars of homemade food is very satisfying. It feels proactive and productive to know we can weather a few storms. Not that we've had enough snow this winter to worry us, but you never know.

Some dark, snowy night Himself might decide the only thing between him and total starvation is an English muffin with cream cheese and lemon jelly. 

Nope. Never happen. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

Caramel Apple Jam

 Now more than ever before I'm excited to try new things within the scope of a home-based lifestyle. Making jams and jelly, canning, dehydrating, making powders - none of it is anything new, but I've not had the time to practice such arts. Now I do. 

Yesterday, I made Caramel Apple Jam. I saw the recipe on YouTube and it looked both easy and delicious. I should have taken photos of each step, but suffice it to say our house was in disarray. Himself chose the same time I did for a project, that being cleaning out the cabinet dedicated to his "stuff."

I found this to be a simple recipe.

6 cups diced apples (I shredded mine and so doubled the pectin)

1/2 cup water

1 package of powdered pectin

2.5 cups white sugar

2.5 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Prepare jars. (Ask Google if you don't know how to do this.)
Prepare the apples, add to a large pot, add the water. 
Bring to a hard boil, then add the pectin. Stir until well incorporated.
Add sugar and spices, and bring to a hard rolling boil.
Maintain the hard rolling boil for a full minute. 
Remove from heat and jar. 
Process jars in a water bath for ten minutes.

This is not a how-to. I'm not going into the specifics of canning. You can find instructions everywhere, although I suggest the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  

The major new thing with this batch of jam was that I used Tattler canning lids for the first time. They've been around for decades, but I only recently learned about them. I like the idea they can be used up to ten times, unlike the standard Ball lids which are to be used once and discarded. Also, using them for jams and jellies isn't much of a risk. If a seal would happen to fail, I wouldn't lose much product. I will stick with Ball for soups, pickles, tomato products - anything in a large jar. 

So now I have twelve little four-ounce jars of jam good for on toast, pancakes, or even vanilla ice cream. It was a good morning's work!

I may try Lemon Drop Jelly next even though Himself gives anything lemon a thumbs down. It sounds good to me.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor