Hi all,
We are all well in Nelson & hope you are all enjoying your season!
So far this year we have done 70 bottles of preserves. Stewed apple, apple juice, stewed plums, pear quarters, beetroot and tomato purée have rolled off the Rosepine production line and have been lovingly stored in the cellar.
One of the local horticulturalists opens their tomato patch up to the scavengers once their tomato crop is past its prime - for 70 cents a kilo. Last weekend Jan & I picked up about 35 kilos and made tomato purée all day Sunday (thanks to Bunty giving us the scavenging tip-off!). I have another 18 kilos of nearly ripe tomatoes in front of the sliders in the lounge that I picked yesterday, turning fire-engine red in the sun. I will preserve them on Sunday when they are nice & ripe.
So this is just a quick request. We are looking for Agee Jars and/or rings to do some more preserving (either green or gold-sized jars/rings). We want to get a good stock ahead for next summer, and need to pay a friend back for 20 jars that we borrowed. We are interested in any amount. 2, 3 or 100. If you have some old rings lurking in the bottom drawer and no jars left to match them with, we would be happy to take them off your hands.
We are happy to buy jars if anyone has some to sell - though they probably need to be relatively local (or have some easy personal courier method to us in Nelson!). Drop us an email or flick us a text if you can help on 021 998 846.
More news next week :-)
Sam & Jan
Our private blog, keeping family & friends up to date with my exciting (!) life in Tasman, New Zealand and Jan's life on another continent...
2 comments:
Howdie-Doodie Neighbours! Of course Agee Jars are best and they look lovely all rowed up like soldiers in their identical uniforms on parade.
As true scavengers ourselves, we use discarded metal-capped glass jars or if you prefer new ones are here.
A bit of technique is required in order to fill and seal them without breaking them through thermal shock.
Put the jars in a large roasting pan and add enough hot (not boiling- you'll break them) water to the pan, at least an inch deep but not so much that they float up.
Put the whole lot into a slow oven and heat until the water is simmering. the water regulates the temperature of the jars to around boiling point. This is because if they get too hot they will break just as readily as if they are not hot enough.
The caps should be inspected and any damages ones- this usually means dents in the metal at the seal or the thread beads worn out- discarded. Then boil them in a pan or we put them in the jug.
Fill the jars with boiling hot preserve and fit the lids loosely. Return to the oven for a minute or two to sterilise the entrapped air.
Remove from the oven and tighten the lids, don't go too crazy or the thread beads on the lids will be damaged. Invert the jars for a moment, the liquid around the seal helps it to seal especially if you're on the third or fourth re-use!
When cooled, check the caps for seal by drumming on them with a fingernail. Any that make a dull low sound are not sealed and should be used up quickly or tossed in with the next batch for a reboil- don't forget to check the jar rim for chips and the lid seal for damage and throw out the offending article to avoid future frustration.
New caps should be available from here.
Neighbourly Regards. Kev
Thanks for reminding me to check the comments, Kev; I will keep an eye on them from now on :-)
We have an Agee Preserver - the electric bath - so can definitely cook our jars. I do use old jars and recycle the lids (boiling before use, as you say, and checking the seals), but the trouble is we rarely buy food in jars. What we do buy, we definitely save and reuse.
I managed to buy over a hundred jars from a couple who were moving to a much smaller house. We did about 120 jars of tomatoe puree, apple puree, apple juice, pears, rhubarb and plums. My failure was pumpkin. Apparently you can't preserve pumpkin because it is too starchy, ferments in the jar and blows the seal.
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