MAKE PRESERVES!

Plenty of grown vegetables and fruit can be found in gardens during the summer season. It’s often troublesome to eat them all at once. What can we do to not let them go to waste? The answer is simple. Preserves!

 

We can put various vegetables in jars, like cucumbers, make a vegetable salad in vinegar, or tomato paste. We can use fruit to make jams, conserves, or compote. We should preserve the taste of summer—and there are many options!

 

Try out our recipes:

 

Pickled zucchini

 

Ingredients:

 

– zucchini

– garlic

– dill

– horseradish

– chilli pepper

– salt

 

Preparation:

 

Wash the zucchini. Place it in washed jars, add garlic, dill, horseradish and other additives, e.g. oak leaves. Adding e.g. some fresh chilli peppers is a good idea. Boil water in a pot and dissolve some salt in it (1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 1 litre). Wait until the water cools down and pour it into jars. Close the jars and put them away for 1 day in the house in a dark, calm place. Later move them to a larder or basement to let them slowly pickle.

 

Tomato pizza sauce

 

Ingredients:

 

– 3 kg of tomatoes (e.g. elongated Lima tomatoes)

– 3 cloves of garlic

– 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

– 1 tablespoon of dried oregano

– 1 teaspoon of sea salt

– ½ teaspoon of pepper (freshly ground is the best)

 

Preparation:

 

Put tomatoes in boiling water for 1–2 minutes, then remove and peel them. Cut them into quarters and remove stems. Remove excess juice and seeds. Dice the flesh. Gently sauté pressed garlic in olive oil in a large and wide pot. Add tomatoes and boil over high heat, adding salt, pepper and dried oregano. After bringing it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer without cover for about 1 hour (stirring from time to time). The sauce should gently bubble during cooking. Near the end you can run the tomatoes through a tomato press, if necessary. Ultimately you should obtain a rather thick sauce that should be poured into scalded dry jars, which should be immediately closed and pasteurized.

 

Plum jam (without sugar)

 

Ingredients:

 

– 2 kg of ripe Italian plums (soft)

 

Preparation:

 

Wash and pit the plums, cut them into smaller chunks or leave them whole. Place the plums in a large wide pot with a thick bottom and cook without cover for about 1.5 hours, stirring from time to time. Take them off the fire and cool down, cover and leave them in a cold place until the following day. On the next day cook them again for about 1.5 hours, this time over a slightly lower heat, stirring a bit more often. Cool them down again, cover and leave until the following day. On the third day cook the jam like before but over a very low heat and slightly shorter (for about 1 hour). Stir more often so that the jam does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Place hot jam into clean and dry jars (2 jars are enough). Pasteurize.