It’s that time of year, when preserving fruit and vegetables plays a large part in our daily and weekly lives. Whether it’s from our own gardens, or from super/market purchases, preserving for tomorrow is always a great idea.

As a chef, I hear a lot of people comment on making jam, chutney, relish, or just ‘canning’ fruit and vegetables as being something remarkable. It’s not. Our grandparents, their grandparents, and so on have been doing this for eon. Since time immemorial civilisation has been making the most of harvests and doing what they could to make it last through bleaker times.

So, that’s what I want to talk about in this post – it’ll be a bumper issue, as I know I owe you several recipes from week’s past. I’ll be walking you through how to make jam, how to make chutney, and how to make relish. Of course, I’ll also discuss my favourite ways on how to save fruit or vegetables; how to freeze, how to can, and how to dehydrate them.

I promise you, you won’t need any fancy equipment (although that can be time/energy saving, it’s not essential) to get the job done. In fact, in most cases you’ll only need a large stockpot or saucepan, wooden spoons, thermometer, jars with lids, some scales, and a pouring jug. Preserving fruit and vegetables really is super easy!

Preserving Equipment:

What size jars should you use? That depends on what you’re making, and how many ‘pots’ it makes – pots is the general term used for jars or containers. For instance, my recipe for relish makes on average about eight pots, or standard and boring 500ml jars. But, if I’m making a batch to give to friends and family as a gift, then I’m going to use a smaller and more decorative jars, and I’m going to need almost twice as many.

So, if you need jars, at a pinch I’d recommend these sizes:

• Hexagonal 227ml
• Short round 380ml
• Medium height round 500ml
• Tall round 750ml

Do you have to buy jars? Not at all, you can keep a collection of jars that you buy from the supermarket. All you need to ensure is that the jar doesn’t have any chipped or damaged edges, the lid is in sound condition, and has a safety seal – this rules out most plastic lids, so look for metal lidded jars when you choose your next commercial jam/peanut butter/chutney/relish or other preserved goods.

Preserving Tips & Tricks:

There’s a lot of ‘you must’ or ‘you shouldn’t’ humbug when it comes to making jam, chutney, or relish. But really, there’s only a few key criteria to make sure your preserved goodies work.

1. Use a thermometer, to make sure you hit the magic jam-setting temperature.
2. Clean jars and lids – this means SPOTLESS, clean thoroughly and dry.
3. Bottle HOT – you want to pour the jam/chutney/relish into the clean jar as soon as you can!
4. Clean rims – after you’ve poured your jam/chutney/relish into the jar, make sure the rim of the bottle is free of any smears of food.
5. Sealed and ‘popped‘ – this means the lid is on TIGHT, and the safety seal has sunken once the jar is cold. You should hear the ‘pop’ when it gets sucked down, it’s the same ‘pop’ you’ll hear when you open a new jar from the supermarket.

Another wise idea is to pre-warm your jars. That way, when the super hot liquid hits the glass, there won’t be any thermal shock – as some older glass jars may shatter. I do this simply by heating my oven to the absolute lowest setting (about 70˚C), and warm the jars for about 15mins before I bottle. Some people like to ‘boil’ their jars after bottling, this ensures that the contents are hot, and that the seal is tight.

What can you Preserve?

Just about anything really – except meat, that tends not to work out so well. You can make different fruit or vegetable jams like strawberry or red onion. Spicy chutneys to go alongside your favourite Indian or Moroccan dishes. A cheese sandwich takes on a whole new dimension when you add relish; tomato, piccalilli, spicy mango and peach.

The world is yours to harvest and preserve. Of course, you can also jar fruit and vegetables as they are; tomatoes, carrots, zucchini/courgette, aubergines, peas, peaches, plums, apples, pears, etc. All of these with need either a salt or sugar syrup to prevent ageing or rotting – to remove oxygen.

Salt vs Sugar Preserving

As a general rule, if you’re preserving vegetables you’ll want a brine of 1 tablespoon of salt to 1 cup (250ml) water, or 4 tablespoons to 4 cups which equals 1 quart (roughly, 1 litre = 1 quart). But, if you’re canning fruit, then you can follow this table from the National Centre for Home Food Preservation.

Now, let’s get you started with some basic preserving recipes!

How to Make your own Jam

Preserving Fruit and Vegetables for Chutney

How to make your own Relish

How to ‘Can’ your Fruit and Vegetables

Canning your fruit and vegetables is really quite a simple process. Just remember, sugar syrup for fruit, and a salt brine for vegetables, or you could be in for a few interesting flavours in your cooking!

Good luck with preserving your fruit and vegetables!

Well, that’s it for this week. Apologies for not posting for a few weeks, but now you know everything you need to in order to get preserving your own fruit and vegetables!

Thanks for checking out this post on how to make jam, how to make chutney, and how to make relish. Make sure you preserve fruit and vegetables this season, so you can enjoy them through the coming winter. If you do, please check back and post a comment. Or you can share a photo on your social media accounts with the hashtag: #LarderPantryandGarden.

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