Modern Cooking - Preserving For Winter

You know what I like most about late summer and early fall? Lots and lots of local produce, some of which you can just pick at the side of the road. Unfortunately, right now there's too much goodness to be consumed immediately. So what to do? Even though I've always hated helping my mom with it when I was a child, I've now taken up preserving myself. In much smaller scale, but still. That's what I have done during the last weeks:

Blackberry Jam with Elderflower Syrup:
Inspired by Susannah's Blackberry Jam, I spontaneously took Lily out blackberry picking. Our loot wasn't the best, but I just loved taking her on a typical North-Western late-summer past time. So what to do? I asked my neighbor for some empty jam containers, and on we went on our very first preserving adventure. Since I had gotten a bottle of home-made elderflower syrup from my coworker a couple of weeks earlier, I scratched the sugar, and used the syrup instead. We mashed the berries with a fork, added the syrup and a few teaspoons of pectine, boiled it until it bubbled, and filled it in the glasses. The result? Not sweet at all, so fruity, and the special elderflower aroma. Delicious! Can't wait to put some on our thumbprint cookies for the holidays!

Yummie, let me tell you!

Apple Sauce
I personally can't stand the over-sweetened taste of apple sauces from the store. When I got a bowl of little apples from my neighbor, I took the opportunity and made some home-made apple sauce. It's SO easy! Peel your apples and cut them into small pieces. Put in a sauce pan, add water to cover about an inch  of the pot and some sugar (I used about 1 cup of water, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 6 or 9 tiny apples). Bring water to a boil and cook covered until the apples are soft. Blend, if you like smooth apple sauce, or if you prefer chunky apple sauce, just pour it directly into a jar. If you like, you can add a cinnamon stick or some other pices to add extra flavor to the apple sauce. We just kept it simple and chunky.


Other things to preserve for the winter:
Cherries (as jam, baked into a cake and frozen, or remove the stone and freeze)
Peaches (as preserve, jam, or cut in pieces and frozen)
Tomatoes (as tomatoe sauce)
Bell peppers (grill under the broiler, fill in glass and cover with olive oil)
Cucumbers (pickled)
Pears (as preserve, pear sauce, in a rum pot, or cut in pieces and frozen)

Things you can preserve, but it's gross somehow:
Pig feet
Eggs


 Are you preserving goodies for the winter? Please share your recipes!