What are you bottling, then?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by bella, Jan 17, 2006.

  1. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    Billybuttongirl,

    Could I suggest you pay a visit to GreenLivingAustralia.com.au https://www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au/ Val and David Pearson are gurus when it comes to preserving. I bought some lids from them a while ago and they supplied me with 2 recipes, both for the open bath method (fowlers) and both of these recipes have either onions or garlic in them.

    I understand what you're saying but perhaps the addition of the lemon juice (in the case of one) or vinegar (the other) will raise the acidity level high enough to overcome any botulism risk.

    They've got a great little forum there specially for preserving, but could really do with more participants as IMO it's been struggling a bit lately. David and Val both visit here occasionally so you might see their name up on a post. I'd really like to see people who are interested in preserving, pay them a visit.

    Tam
     
  2. billybuttongirl

    billybuttongirl Junior Member

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    Hi Tam,
    Yes, i have been on the Green Living website and have read a lot about preserving on there as well. David and Val seem like a mine of knowledge. Haven't had a chance to post on their forum though.

    Absolutely, the lemon juice and tomatoes raise the acidity and prevent the botulism bugs living and breeding. I still plan to use both fresh garlic and onion in my bottled pasta sauces, but just found it interesting that Fowlers themselves say to use the dried stuff. in my case i'm figuring that the small amounts of those will be such a small proportion of the sauce compared to the tomatoes that it probably doesn't warrant removing them all together. Its interesting that there seems to be such a range of opnions on preserving tomatoes and sauces, whereas fruits seem so much more straightforward. Well its seems so for a new preserver like me!

    cheers,
    Billybuttongirl
     
  3. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    BBG, I posted a while back on sundried tomatoes and seem to remember quoting a warning re the inclusion of garlic with the oil........
    .......found it.

    This still doesn't really address the question we have as to weather the combination of tomatoes+garlic+lemon juice will = high or low acid environment.
     
  4. han_ysic

    han_ysic Junior Member

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    I love lemon butter, delicious, and easy to make. Look up a recipe on the net.

     
  5. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    What I am bottling

    White wine French tarragon vinegar
    Some red wine vinegar chilli, thyme, garlic and Greek Oregano (the best) vinegar and my fist attempt at lemon verbena jelly with a touch of lime zest and juice (they were 10c each at the fruit shop!)

    On lemons
    Greeks and Lebanese preserve them whole. There must be a Greek or lebanese near you somewhere who can show you how to do it and then how to use them.
     
  6. han_ysic

    han_ysic Junior Member

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    `

    I have recently begun bottling, previously just made some jams - lots of mistakes as I just taught myself from recipes. Lately I have done some lovely caramelised onion jam with friends at Permaculture North. My most recent news is that my grandparents have given me a fowlers vacola stovetop outfit and I have friends who have shown me how to bottle, we have only done quinces so far, but now I am hoping to go past the markets and pick up some things on special. Can't wait to try more.
     
  7. Tas'

    Tas' Junior Member

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    Re: What I am bottling

    https://tinyurl.com/2kala3

    Preserved Lemons
    Malika Ennaim

    Wash and dry lemons – use the best unblemished fruit you can find, preferably in season.

    Cut into quarters, but do not cut all the way through so that the pieces are still joined together at the base.

    Spoon about 2 teaspoons of sea salt into the cuts and place into a glass jar, packing them in tightly.

    Add the juice of 1 lemon and some more salt. Cover with warm water.

    Seal jar and leave in a cool dark place for 40 days and nights. Do not refrigerate. Preserved lemons will then be ready to use.
     
  8. ejanea

    ejanea Junior Member

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    I have a fowler's vacola thing that I bought at a garage sale quite few years ago. I get bottles from anyone who throws them out ( I now have quite few.)
    I bottle anything that I have too much of or that I get for free. I don't have a freezer (they cost too much to run), so I keep any surplus in jars, it's free! I use wood in my stove to boil the fowlers thing, so it is "free" too. (Most of my wood I get from trees either around my home or on the side of the road.)

    This summer I bottled apricots, heaps of tomatoes, cherries, quinces, zucchinis and "ratatouille mix". From last year I have left some broad beans (good in soup) and some "ratatouille mix" which varies, depending on what was in the garden when I did them but they make good pasta sauce in the wiinter.

    In the summer I bottle something or other every few days it seems, after I cook the dinner while the stove is still hot (wood stove). As soon as the extra vegetables get ahead of us, I bottle them. It's easier to do a little bit fairly often, but when I have a glut of something from a fruit tree, I'm given someone's surplus, or whatever, it can be a big day!
     
  9. pauloz

    pauloz Junior Member

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    what are you bottling

    Hi Dryland Dweller
    I'm new to the forum and new to preserving/bottling/drying. Just two questions please

    1 How do you dry your toms and

    2 What is your recipe for schnapps (will i need a still)?

    Cheers Paul
     
  10. hardworkinghippy

    hardworkinghippy Junior Member

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    We put some of our surplus fruit into Eau de Vie. (distilled fruit) You can use any alcohol above 40°.

    There's no sterilizing, you can pop the fruit in as you gather it and the jars keep in a dark cool place for years. (In theory :twisted: ) Here are some wild cherries.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. pauloz

    pauloz Junior Member

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    Fowlers bottlingf thingy

    Hi ejanea
    Is your bottling thingy an old brown tin, fancy looking thing that you'd put on a stove(wood or gasor electic), if it is i found one in my shed when we bought this old place in Gelorup WA. I never ever throw anything out (much to the disgust of my wife) and now i'm glad i did'nt, i also found 20 odd vacoula jars in a cupboard in the shed. Man i'm set up for my crop next year.

    Is there a good book on using these contraptions, i know i need new lids and rubbers all the ones in the shed were rusty as. I don't want to waste precious produce on trial and error, not when we have a forum as good as this, SO if anyone else has good advice i'm all ears

    CHEERS PAUL
     
  12. dryland dweller

    dryland dweller Junior Member

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    Paul google fowlers vacola and you might find a recipe book ....well worth the effort.
    Get rid of the lids and buy new stainless steel lids cheaper in the long term.
    We bottle fruit and veg and have done for years and would never think to do oterwise.
    The brown tin thing is a fowlers boiler from the description so good find. It should have a hole in the side to put a thermometer into (a vital piece of equiment in my view) Enjoy your preserving
    Pete
     
  13. hardworkinghippy

    hardworkinghippy Junior Member

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    Pauloz,

    There are some photos in here which should give you a rough idea of what you do.

    Bottling's very simple, and as Ejanea says, once you get into the swing of it you can do a little whenever you've too much of anything. Just be careful about getting the timing and the acidity of your contents right.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/hardworkin ... ts/881202/
     
  14. Jackie K

    Jackie K Junior Member

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    Hi Pete, Do you have the recipe for the schnapps you mentioned earlier. I've just finished a bottle of butterscotch schnapps a friend gave me and it was so yummy I'd like to make some more.
    Jackie K :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
     
  15. Brandubh

    Brandubh Junior Member

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    Just bottled

    we were given quite a few kilos of granny smith apples, so I stewed them up and put them through the Fowlers. they will come in handy for pie fillings during winter
     
  16. ejanea

    ejanea Junior Member

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    Yes, it's an old rusty looking thing on the inside, but a real "upmarket" on that was originally orange and yellow (1970's?)
    It has a thermometer in a little slot on the side. You can still buy the thermometers (fowlers) at our local hardware. I have a book of recipes for everything (a Fowlers book , probably about 1940's or 50's from the pictures) that must have come as an instruction book for an old kit. I bought it for $3 at a second hand bookshop in Adelaide about 7 or 8 years ago.
    The significant thing is how long bottles takes to get "up to temperature" and how long that temperatureshould be maintained. I do it on a wood stove, so it just depends on how much wood I use, and what kind.
    The hardest things to process, according to the book, are tomatoes, and they explain how to make sure that they don't "go off" and beans (broad beans) or peas that are inclined to go "milky".
    I've done both and they've been ok.
    The tomatoes need to take a long time to get "up to temperature" , remain there for a long time, and then cool down in the water bath too. That means that I usually do them at night after I've done everything else in the kitchen. They cool down overnight. I always do a lot of tomatoes either as peeled and in weak brine, or peeled and blended to use as fresh tomatoes in soups and stews etc.
    Broad beans were very good and I always have a lot of them because I plant them in winter amongst the marginal plants.... ones that might make it through the winter (green peppers and eggplants) despite the frost. I think that the beans (planted too close to the other plants) keep them warm. If I know it's going to be a really cold night, I have wrapped the whole clump in newspaper too. In the spring I cut them (the beans) off at the ground level and most of the green peppers and egglants are a bit further along. They produce earlier than they would if I planted new ones. It's why I have a ot of broad beans though.
    Lately though, I've usually dried the broad beans and jsut cooked them (the ones I don't plant) in soup for a nice long time. Some of them have tough shells that don't get all that soft, but you can pick those out as you eat. I'm sure people have done that for thousands of years.
     
  17. Brandubh

    Brandubh Junior Member

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    old fowlers

    yes ejanea,
    I have now got an 'upmarket' yellow/orange one, but my old one is the tin colour.
    In fact my friend rescued it from her mothers garage, we found out it belonged to her grandmother, we figure it is about 65+ years old. It is not quite 'good as new' but not far off it.

    I am just about to put thru some plum puddings, they are a great stand by for the winter, just enough for 2
     
  18. Tas'

    Tas' Junior Member

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