Kitchen Garden Forum

As we seem to be rapidly approaching the summer, it's already time to be thinking about what you're going to do with that glut of tomatoes / courgettes / strawbs... and KG is doing a special August issue, dedicated to the dark arts of preserving.

You may already have noticed a taster with Bob Flowerdew's article this month and next month's issue will feature more information and reviews of some great books on preserving your home grown produce.

In the meantime, why not head over to the Harvest Q&A section of the site, and give us your best preserving tips!

Hi Mr Potato Head,

I read Bob Flowerdews article I am looking forward for next months issue ( as I always do) what I would like to ask is were does he get his labels for his Jars from

Kind Regards

Kevin

I'm afraid I don't know about Bob, but I nearly always get mine from Lakeland.

Although I find that you can make quite cool ones yourself using an inkjet printer and standard address label sheets!

There's a nice selection here.

http://www.countryside-direct.com/jar-covers-labels.htm

Do our members blanch or not, peas, broad beans, runner beans, cauliflowers?, my WI. book and M&S book suggest blanching between 1-4 min.depending on which vegetable you are freezing, I think it was Beryl who said last year there was no need to blanch. I am jumping the gun hoping for a good harvest so getting prepared.

Bren

my parents used to blanch, father used to grow 3 or 4 60 ft rows of peas which of course all needed blanching together, fraid it put me off , we now never blanch anything.

I think that if you intend to eat your frozen veg within a few months, it probably doesn't make any difference.
We try to freeze enough peas, broad beans and french beans to last until the next season so we always blanch. When you put stuff in the freezer the deterioration in its flavour and texture is slowed down but doesn't stop. So the longer you keep it then the more noticeable the changes will be. Blanching extends the time that the food will keep in good quality by considerably slowing down these changes.
We don't blanch strongly flavoured fruit like blackcurrants and raspberries as they still taste good even after a year in the freezer.

John

had a root round in the depths of the freezer last week, the gooseberries that went in the crumble were marked "04" guess its nearly time it was cleared out again.

Reminds me , some years ago when the family was at home, we ran two 13 cu freezer's, cleared one out, and found a turkey in the bottom, for the love of us we couldn't remember buying it, still it ate OK. Shallotman