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Monday, October 11, 2010

A Few Things Re-visited and Somesuch


Do you remember the story on the The store cupboard? I wanted to add further to that now that we are on the other side of winter and planting again.
I estimated that I had "put up" more than 100kgs of food not including jams, relish or chutneys. Tomatoes are a real staple in our cupboard. Friday is "pizza night" at our place. I work till about 7pm on Fridays and Craig makes homemade pizzas ready to go as soon as I walk in the door. I made 12 (Fowlers) bottles of tomato sauce mostly for the pizza bases and at this stage we have 4 left so I would estimate the amount just right. (I did do some that I gave away also).
I lost count of how many tomatoes I bottled (somewhere in the vicinity of 150) but we have about 30 bottles left (each contains about 800g-1kg) and I wouldn't change these quantities either. We use the bottled tomatoes for lots of slow cooked dishes, curries and soups. To bottle this much we planted 12 tomato plants of many different varieties. My favourite for bottle prep is the Roma style as it has no creases and remains mostly blemish free and it's shape and firmness of flesh is easily cut making the job so much quicker. I do bottle all different varieties together and love the various aspects that they bring to each bottling making the flavours and colours unique.
I bottled about 10 kg of blueberries and still have some left along with pears. Of the 8kg of cherries that I did we have probably two bottles left. The fruit has been a wonderful standby for impromptu dinner parties and I have whipped many types of fruit crumbles but by far my favourite thing throughout the Winter is to be still enjoying the fruits of summer on my Weet-Bix in the mornings.
The beans were not such a good story though. Because they are a low acid food, they need to be bottled in a half vinegar, half water solution. Despite repeated rinsing and slow casserole cooking....they still taste very acidic. There is no bean flavour left and while they would prevent starvation, in this day and age of plenty I've decided it's far better to store what we can in the freezer and perhaps leave the rest to harvest for bean seed.
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I also wrote about Foot Detox Patches. Hmmmm not sure about the whole detox thing. I didn't notice any appreciable effects within my being as a whole. I am still skeptical but I will admit that my FEET have felt less "broken" than they normally do. A life of retailing on hard floors has left my feet feeling like they are full of broken bones and a middle of the night trip to the toilet is a hobble up the hallway. Maybe the patches have taken down some of the inflammation and reduced fluid within the tissues, I don't know. When I was shopping around for the patches, some sellers even claimed they were great for weight loss...*snort*. There is no doubt that there is moisture lost through the feet during the night but I wouldn't classify that as weight loss. There is still no magic pill for that one!

2 comments:

  1. your quantites are awe inspiring tanya - i really want to do the same thing this year. i've spent so much time getting the vege patch ready. my next step is conquering the vacola and having enough lids and seals on hand to do this. I agree about the beans - we freeze any extras, they still seem rubbery but are ok in curries and the slow cooker.

    i tried those foot pad detox things - they were so annoying on my feet at night - i expected them to be laden with coffee in the morning from absorbing the "nasties" out :)

    but i found a bout of bowen therapy at the masseur solved my aching feet and creaky foot bones better.

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  2. I'm hoping for a good tomato crop this year, would be great to have lots bottled like yours!
    The Roma variety has done well for me in past seasons.

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