F's been bottling apricots.
I'm not really interested in apricot bottling, but in the absence of a human to talk to she has been talking to me.
Reminiscing.
Her Mum used to preserve around 150 x 2 pint jars of apricots every year. She also did a few peaches, plums, stewed apples, but the family never really took to anything but apricots. They ate apricots with cornflakes on them for 'pudding' after dinner in the evenings. (Breakfasts were porridge all year round.)
You can get 8 x 2pint jars out of a 20lb case of apricots. The cases used to be wooden and they had a fair collection - would load them into the trailer and drive up to Kurow to get apricots from there in the season.
You work it out, that must be ...oh ...well.... lots of boxes anyway. (Cat school doesn't include maths.)
Her Mum also made tomatoes into passata and sealed it into jars throughout the tomato season. F's Dad grew the tomatoes.
Tomatoes went into 1 pint jars. F's Mum must have had 100's of preserving jars. F only has a dozen of the squat ones, and half of those have beetroot in them. So this is probably all the bottled apricots I am going to have to supervise.
Thank goodness.
Glad to see you are keeping her busy.
ReplyDeletefirst let me say, those are the cutest jars ever. Our pints are taller and thinner than these, same amount different shape. I never canned or JARRED anything but from the time I could walk until I moved out at 19 to get married, i was mothers little canning slave. we had a basement in Kentucky and the walls had shelves top to bottom with hundreds of jars of everthing daddy grew. He grew what we ate. there was corn, beans, peas, pickles of all kinds, quart jars of tomatoes and every fruit she could get hold of. apples, pears, strawberries, black berries in fact the only one missing was apricots. for those we bought dried ones and poured boling water over them. yum when they got all puffy . I picked and cut and chopped and washed so she could can. most would think that would make me can things. NOPE i despised helping and thought i was abused because my brother did not have to help. it was a girls thing. sorry your beautiful fruit set my fingers wagging
ReplyDeleteCanning slave - i get it. Fortunately Mum did all the preserving. I was the floor polishing, dusting, window and car cleaning slave - that was my Saturday every week. And do you know? I've no idea what my brother did either. Must ask him.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteYum... that's about all I have to offer today! (Wimbledon and having company too distracting...) Hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx
They'll be yum in the winter, for now I'm being a pig on fresh ones. Enjoy your visitor. xxx F
DeleteI used to bottle and preserve when I had the family
ReplyDeleteAnd most of it was home grown
Now I’m just too old and tired
But it is a wonderful tradition that connects us to the past
And It helped with balancing the budget
Freezers have replaced a lot of it - and better too. I mean who would bottle beans or peas these days? I only do apricots (better texture than frozen), pickled beetroot, and tomato passata. Anything else not made into chutney or jam goes in the freezer. The tomatoes could go in the freezer but sometimes i just want a can of tomatoes for something spontaneous, and can't be bothered thinking about it far enough in advance to thaw them.
DeleteI've never been into canning, laziness I guess but I keep meaning to try it sometime.
ReplyDeleteNaught lazy about it. It's daunting to learn if you haven't grown up with it, and the list of equipment you are told you need would put anyone off. Like everything, there are more ways... we hope your kitty is feeling better.
DeleteThey look great, and I do love the small jars. I would love to do things like that, but I guess I will have to wait uintil I retire.
ReplyDeleteYou do loads of fabulous baking with your time, so don't be hard on yourself.
DeleteOh, those memories you have evoked for me Tigger. I grew up with bottled fruit and cornflakes! Hubby used to get given bottled fruit with bread and butter when he was a child. We always had 'pudding' each night and that bottled fruit must have been the ultimate in convenience for my busy mother.
ReplyDeleteConvenience ....after the investment of inconvenience bottling it all. Our kitchen turned into a factory! Still I've learned the quickest and tidiest ways of getting to the end result.
Delete