When to Make It

I am just having a Shakespeare moment. I love horseradish. It seems you either love it or loathe it. I am a marmite person too. So I was rather disappointed to find that my aunt barely mentions this fulsome root vegetable in Let’s Preserve It. Dried horseradish, horseradish and beetroot relish and horseradish and tomato…
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Easter is nearly upon us and with it all the fare of Hot cross buns and Simnel cake and Roast Lamb and not to mention Easter Eggs Beyond these traditional Easter foods there are a whole range of favourite fun foods and platters – with or without preserves -that children can not only enjoy in the holidays and…
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We must thank Elizabeth Raffald (the Mary Berry of the mid 18th century) for introducing the term Piccalilli to the English in 1769 and for including a recipe for this Indian pickle or Piccalillo in her book The Experienced English Housekeeper. Now is the Piccalilli making time of year and here is one of the preserves that must be…
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What a great idea to have a National Breakfast Week and here it is from January to 24th to 30th.  I just love the idea of National Breakfast week. It is my favourite meal and then marmalade,my favourite preserve, comes into its own. So this week is a winner. All day breakfast for me. Breakfast comes in…
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It is that time of year when Seville oranges arrive on the stalls. I still aspire make a trip one winter to the orange groves of Spain and the renowned Ave Maria Seville orange farm For now, the time has come to transform these fruits into that wonderful tart and bitter golden preserve. Marmalade has many more uses, however, than just…
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I realised I had been dragging my heels a tad in starting to prepare preserves and fare for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the coming months. Well  I have been a little busy and  it is only the beginning of November after all. Then a few days ago I was brought up short when someone mentioned that…
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If asked to choose ONE food that I could not live without, it would be a very close call between an apple and cheese. That is not to say that I am planning on living on solely one food. It is just that without that one food I would be devastated, lost, mourning . And the apple wins….
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I do  enjoy that end of summer feeling. Amongst other things, I have just been gathering in some surplus herbs for a supply of dried herbs through the winter and wow what a surplus this year. I now have herbs hanging up in every dark corner of the house. Dried herbs  It is also a perfect…
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I have tomato plant is just outside my kitchen door. This is not so much for the fruit as for the wonderful waft from the foliage that hits me every time I saunter out. No matter that I only have a few green tomatoes on my plant, this year! A FRUIT Yes, indeed it is a…
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If there is just one MUST DO OUTING to enjoy with your children in the summer holidays it is to go blackberrying. By the end of August the hedgerows will be heaving with dark shiny berries and I cannot wait to collect them and then sit back and enjoy a plain bowlful. And then some for puddings, cheesecakes…
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