Autumn Preserving

Last week, I started a batch of greengage wine, which was ready today for straining, sugaring, and inoculating with yeast. Into a demi-john it's gone, with 1.7kg of sugar, yeast and nutrients: it appears from my recipe that this one takes a good while to ferment, and the lower temperatures will probably increase that further. Never mind: it's tucked away in the airing cupboard.

On Sunday night we made a batch of apricot and peach chutney (with, inevitably, apples, onions, spices, and so on, too!), which is probably the last batch of chutneys for this year, having already made Windfall chutney and a date and apple one. The cores and skins joined a bag of frozen lemon halves (which I've been collecting over the last six months: zesting and juicing them, then freezing the 'discard' husks) in a big pan. Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I've strained them, and made the juice into Compost Heap Jelly (450g sugar per 600ml juice).

That was last night: tonight has been the turn of rosehip and apple jelly. Another batch of apples were cooked down, and pushed through a sieve. 300ml rosehip syrup (from two years ago!) and 600ml of apple 'sauce', meaning 900g of sugar: cooked to 104°C, and jarred.