Speckles of gold.

I have always looked through my canning books and every time I see "Habanero Gold" I have always wanted to make it,but something always stops me.
.I am trapped on the coast at the moment as my man is away at work, I  try to keep busy to make the time go faster.
So the other day I thought, today is the day I will make that beautiful pepper jelly.
I gathered all my ingredients, but was unable to get any habaneros, so made do with a slightly milder green chilli as a substitute.So I thought I would document this journey as I went along.
I decided to make two batches as i have read that you have to be a little careful multiplying batches when doing jelly as  they sometimes don't gel as well as single batches, so I heeded that warning.
Firstly I finely chopped 1/4 cup of dried apricots and put them in in a plastic bowl over which i poured 3/4 cup of white vinegar, I then covered this with cling film and left about 4 hours9But it can be left overnight if needed)

I placed the apricots into two stainless pots, and then chopped 1/4 cup red onions into small dice and added to the pots.

I then chopped 1/4 cup of a sweet red pepper into small dice and added it also to the pots.

I then I put on protective rubber gloves(which I have learnt the hard way,that one should always do) split my green chillies down the centre and removed the seeds,and chopped them also into a fine dice to measue 1/4 cup and added these also to the pots.

To this I now added 3 cups of sugar to each of the pots and mixed together with a  whisk until combined.

I then put this on high heat and brought this to the boil,stirring constantly and boiled hard to a rolling boil, I then stirred in 1 pouch of liquid pectin and returned the mix to a hard boil again and continued to boil for 1 minute.I then turn off the heat, allow to settle and skim off any scum or film that forms( this makes a clearer jelly,with no "froth" on top.
Meanwhile prepare your lids in a pot of just simmering water,don't boil them, and fill your clean,hot jelly jars, de-bubble if necessary and leave  the required 1/4 inch headspace. Place lids on and screw on bands to finger tight.

Then out comes my trusty  big electric water bath,and I place all my jars into it, cover  them with a couple of inches of warm/hot water, place the lid on and turn the dial to boil. When it reaches that magic number I then time it for 10 minutes, turn off, and remove lid and let the jars sit for  about 5 minutes. I then lift all the jars out onto a towel which I have placed on my bench and leave to cool. I check they all have "pinged" and leave them for 24 hours before removing the rings.

The next day after removing all the rings, I wash the jars to remove any sticky residue, and label them, and then I show off a little by arranging them and taking a pretty photo( I was very proud of my first attempt, I thought they looked gorgeous) and then the final test

.
When my man returned  home from work after being away we broke open a nice bottle of Sauvigon Blanc(for me) and a beer for him and gave  the Habanero Gold a try.....all I can say is YUM  !!!!
So I must go,
So until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane

A glut of citrus

As Usual at this time of year we have a glut of citrus. I gave  a lot of citrus  away as I just didn't have the time or the need to preserve  it this year as I already had a wonderful supply of marmalade from last year.
So this year I only kept  the tangerines and ruby grapefruit and I only had a few lemons and limes as the trees are only new.
I decided to attempt jelly which I have never made before, My Mum( and after speaking to my cousin this morning,) my Aunty Belle  used to make quince jelly when I was very young, but I barely remember.
I borrowed my sons big Breville  juicer which he has in storage at our house and took it up to the farm with me.This sure saved me a heck of a lot of time.
I had two  shopping bags of tangerines to juice , and i ended up with 9 litres of tangerine juice,and one litre of ruby grapefruit juice,and a cup full of lemon juice and a small amount of lime juice.

I kept four litres aside to make four batches of jelly and decided to attempt to can the remainder of the juice to use at a later date. I have never canned any juice before so this was a real trial for me..will let you know how it goes.We simmered the juice for 10 minutes,then strained through several layers of muslin,placed back into pot,added the pectin and reboiled for 1 minute, then added the sugar and reboiled for another 1 minute.
I made four individual batches as I wanted to try a variety of  additives, in one batch I did I added lemon juice and the 4 1/2 cups of sugar and the pectin another I added no lemon juice and less sugar and pectin and the grapefruit I added lime juice. This was purely all experimental for future use.

We prepared our jars, rings lids ect according to instruction filled to within a quarter inch, removed any bubbles and sealed. We then processed them in a double layer in my trusty old Fowlers Vacola water bath preserver for 20 minutes. We decided to set it up outside this time  so that we could run a lead to the generator to run it.
As our property is off grid,  we only have limited amounts of electricity, and on a fine sunny day we would have been ok to run it off our batteries, but we had had several overcast days and so we didn't want to add the extra drain onto the batteries on top of regular household use.

We removed the jars after processing and left on the towel covered table overnight to cool completely and seal which they did.
I then removed the rings, and washed the jars. I had already pre-labeled the jars  as they had been different things and needed to know which was which.

The colour was quite good, though  the jelly not quite as clear as I had thought it would be, maybe the straining process needs to be more thorough. The taste of the tangerine jelly was good, although quite tart, but that suits me. the ruby grapefruit jelly was quite bitter, we think because the lime juice we added was from Kafir limes and not the sweeter  tahitian limes, and I think that may have affected it.I would use the ruby grapefruit again  but omit the limes...the colour of it was beautiful.
So my next attempt at jelly making  will be with a sweeter fruit, either pomegranates or grapes or mulberries,or what ever I happen to come across. I have been contemplating purchasing a steam juicer for this purpose.
The canned juice colour seemed to keep good, although the juice has appeared to have separated slightly.Whether this  all comes together again on re-opening the jars remains to be seen. Will  keep you informed when the time comes.
While we were up at the farm this time I went around and took a few house photos for record keeping and history purposes as we are planning quite a few changes over the next year or so as we make more serious  progress towards living on the farm full time.
So I thought below I would pop in a couple of pictures of my old workhorse of a kitchen. Nothing glamorous but it has been fairly practical.

We arn't sure what we will do exactly but that big brick chimney that leaks water everywhere every time it rains will go and be replaced with big glass sliding doors out to our later to be covered entertaining area,It has created a huge chain of events, each relying on another job to be done before it can be...I am sure we will be living in chaos for a while but it will eventually all be worth it.
So until next time,
Regards to everyone,
Jane.