Plums, plums and more plums...

Scored 4kg of the lovely things... Got straight to work and ended up with 6 big jars of plum jam!!!

Yummy... Have given some away and others are stored for later ;)

So thankful to beautiful people in my community for their generous hearts and beautiful souls... So blessed...

Banana Chips...

May not look as pretty as the ones from the shops but mine aren't deep fried or dull or preservatives. And that I'm happy about. Was so easy...

Cut bananas, dunk in lemon or lime juice, put on baking paper on tray and into the oven for 3 hours, turning half way through.

Great way to use up bananas that are getting old...

Blessings,

Kumquat marmalade...

I had the pleasure of going along with my wonderful friend Margaret to her local special school parent support group luncheon at their local RSL Club. Was great to support them as they had just reopened since being totally flooded out in January 2011. It was great to talk with so many lovely ladies that all had allot in common...

One lady there at one stage offered me her kumquat tree full of ripe fruit. I couldn't refuse ;) Margaret did a great job giving instructions of how to get to Kath's house... So much so we ended up in someone's yard that we still have no clue what their names are. To say the lady and her daughter were shocked at seeing us in their backyard (one was rather annoyed at the two guard dogs as they licked us, not shredded us, as they are supposed to lol) looking for a no existing tree, yep it is an understatement lol. We couldn't stop giggling, it was something you don't think you're ever going to do but here we were...

Anyway, we got to the right house, second time lucky, again let ourselves in, as we had permission this time, and except about 20 or so, we picked the tree clean :)

The smell when cutting up the fruit and when making the marmalade yesterday was... Amazing... The only tedious job was getting the seeds out of the marmalade before it set. Hubby and I scored sore backs out of it and am pretty sure there are still some in there... A little surprise for the receiver lol

I ended up with a heap of bottles that I waterbathed and the clamps come off tonight. I will then date the jars and give most away for Christmas.

One jar is in the fridge for use today already :) I love it though that the airtight jars will last about five years this way :) Love using what I can and making it last as long as possible!!!

My thanks again to the wonderful Kath for her generous donation. And off course to Margaret for getting us to the right house in the end and for helping me pick the tree clean ;)

Wow, what an adventure!!!

Cheers

Peaches everywhere...

Had Christine ring up earlier during the week... She had a tree full of peaches and couldn't use any more of them. She had given a heap away and water bathed a heap herself. Chutney and jams had also been made. Could I please help her out and take some... Could I??? Off course I could...

So down I drive, armed with two doz eggs, which she was running out of :) And filled up two buckets. I ended up with seven glass containers full of peaches that I halved, skinned and water bathed in a light syrup. One didn't seal so we have been having it with home made custard. Oh yummmm... Straight from the tree to the bottle. From tree at 4pm and water bathed in total by 7:30pm. Now that is what I call fresh :)

Cheers Damaris

Plums, plums and more plums

A lovely lady in our village gave me some the other week and I made sure that what was not eaten was water bathed... I wanted to ensure that it didn't go to waste.

They have gone on holidays and I was supposed to go down to her place and get the others that would have been ripe by now... That was last Friday... I totally forgot about it in the afternoon when I was supposed to get down there and then we went on holidays.

Since coming back I have not had a chance as we have either been in town restocking or it has been pouring rain... What a pity. Will try again tomorrow and maybe there are some fallen plumbs that at least the chooks can feast on... Oh what a shame...

Cheers Damaris

Conserving...

Jam on the left and Plumbs in behind...

Love to get fruit and then make it extend as long as possible... During the week I got ahold of some plumbs and 1/2 kg of Strawberries... I knew straight away just what to do with them all. :)

So yesterday afternoon I conserved the plumbs into 4 x No 31 Vacola Preserving Jars. I also made Strawberry Jam and put that into another jar as well. Water bathed them all and now they are just about ready to have the clips taken off them and labelled and stored...

These will make Christmas presents as we can't use that fruit but am very fortunate to have it all the same. Makes it easy for Pressies. :)

Cheers Damaris

More Plums...

Newly added jam, now in the pantry. :)

Was going through the freezer the other day and realised that I still had some frozen, cut up plums that were just in a container and that needed sorting out. Could use the container too. Ended up making some Plum jam. Was good to do that again. Been a while since I have made jam and then water bathed it. Can't wait till the glut of fruit comes again. Especially grapes from the Stanthorpe area. :)

Cheers Damaris