I wouldn't preserve apricots I eat them on breakfast, I only freeze Raspberries, red and blackcurrants gooseberries I think need to be cooked to keep the sweetness. Runner beans we eat, we have runner beans and runner beans.
I prefer to blanch all those vegetables which are supposed to need it - you never know which little bags of frozen stuff somehow get "lost" in the freezer, only to turn up months later! If they're then not really worth eating, the whole thing has been a bit of a waste of time.
As far as pans of boiling water are concerned, no real problem I reckon if you boil a kettle-full of water to add to a smaller quantity already heating on the top of the stove. Far quicker that way. If you decide to steam rather than put the vegetables in the pan itself, the water just needs topping up from time to time. I always steam fresh green vegetables anyway, often on top of a pan which has perhaps carrots or potatoes in it. Makes more space on the cooker top and I guess it saves electricity/gas too as well as the result having a better texture/flavour.
I remember the taste/texture of runner beans preserved in salt - ugh! In those days the larder shelves were stacked with bottled stone-fruit (plums/damsons) and people even used to preserve whole eggs in isinglass.
John Seymour reckoned that anyone taking up freezer space with runner beans needs their head examining - they're better packed in dry salt in stone jars. You have to wash the salt out before you cook them, of course otherwise they'd be an effective emetic!
Never tried it myself, as I need my head examining anyway. But they have to be young to freeze, otherwise they're stringy and tough.
It's a lot of bother blanching veg,apples can be cooked without syrup.Last year we had a lot of plums I just put them in fridge and use them every morning they kept very well. Apricots,peaches and nectarines can be stored that way
Don't bother going down the "salt route"! As I mentioned before, the results are not worth eating. I think salt was used in the past as a means of preserving all sorts of things because it was readily available and there wasn't really an alternative apart from smoked or dried meat & fish etc. Not sure when people started to make preserves in glass jars or in cans, but I guess it was probably over 100 years ago, and who had their own canning factory anyway! At some point people must have discovered that things like vinegar and sugar acted as a preservative, but sugar (as we know it) was a real luxury item until relatively recently in terms of our own evolution, so it would be interesting to find out just when and where these means of preserving food began to be used.
I always pick the runner beans etc well before they get to the tough & stringy stage anyway - and helps more of the flowers to "set" apparently, as the fundamental reason for plants to flower and seed is for them to reproduce - so if you don't allow them to get to the fully-developed "seed" stage, it works because they keep on trying! When you think about it, we don't eat the beans when they have grown enough for the seeds themselves to be viable - we really only eat their immature seed pods. Must go & pick some mange-tout peas in a minute!
Most veg, runner beans, courgettes, peas, french beans, potatoes, onions etc are ideal candidates for soups. If you are looking to store nutritional value in a compact freezer space without the use of huge quantities of salt then freezing soup is the way to go.
For many fruits such as black/red/whitecurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and other smaller fruit, jams and jellies are the way to go for nutritional value. They last a year or more with almost no nutritional value loss.
Combine the two and you are well on the way to living on your own produce through winter.
If you are really serious about self-sufficiency then i would suggest that you look at potatoes and apples which can be stored in cool, dark conditions in their whole state if you choose the correct varieties.
Drying legumes also involves no salt and they can last almost indefinitely if stored correctly. Along with potatoes and apples they can provide the roughage which is necessary for a good diet.
Squashes are brilliant for storing if they are in a cool place, my butternuts kept well into spring and I have still got some 'vegetable spaghetti' sitting in the store in perfect condition....mostly because I now need a chain saw to get through the skin . Perhaps him indoors will have a go with the axe!
When I get into the last one I shall keep the seeds, as I really like these.
Split, deseeded and baked in the oven with garlic and rosemary for about an hour, the flesh can be forked out and is exactly like spaghetti but NO calories
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I prefer to blanch all those vegetables which are supposed to need it - you never know which little bags of frozen stuff somehow get "lost" in the freezer, only to turn up months later! If they're then not really worth eating, the whole thing has been a bit of a waste of time.
As far as pans of boiling water are concerned, no real problem I reckon if you boil a kettle-full of water to add to a smaller quantity already heating on the top of the stove. Far quicker that way. If you decide to steam rather than put the vegetables in the pan itself, the water just needs topping up from time to time. I always steam fresh green vegetables anyway, often on top of a pan which has perhaps carrots or potatoes in it. Makes more space on the cooker top and I guess it saves electricity/gas too as well as the result having a better texture/flavour.
I remember the taste/texture of runner beans preserved in salt - ugh! In those days the larder shelves were stacked with bottled stone-fruit (plums/damsons) and people even used to preserve whole eggs in isinglass.
John Seymour reckoned that anyone taking up freezer space with runner beans needs their head examining - they're better packed in dry salt in stone jars. You have to wash the salt out before you cook them, of course otherwise they'd be an effective emetic!
Never tried it myself, as I need my head examining anyway. But they have to be young to freeze, otherwise they're stringy and tough.
Don't bother going down the "salt route"! As I mentioned before, the results are not worth eating. I think salt was used in the past as a means of preserving all sorts of things because it was readily available and there wasn't really an alternative apart from smoked or dried meat & fish etc. Not sure when people started to make preserves in glass jars or in cans, but I guess it was probably over 100 years ago, and who had their own canning factory anyway! At some point people must have discovered that things like vinegar and sugar acted as a preservative, but sugar (as we know it) was a real luxury item until relatively recently in terms of our own evolution, so it would be interesting to find out just when and where these means of preserving food began to be used.
I always pick the runner beans etc well before they get to the tough & stringy stage anyway - and helps more of the flowers to "set" apparently, as the fundamental reason for plants to flower and seed is for them to reproduce - so if you don't allow them to get to the fully-developed "seed" stage, it works because they keep on trying! When you think about it, we don't eat the beans when they have grown enough for the seeds themselves to be viable - we really only eat their immature seed pods. Must go & pick some mange-tout peas in a minute!
Quite.
Most veg, runner beans, courgettes, peas, french beans, potatoes, onions etc are ideal candidates for soups. If you are looking to store nutritional value in a compact freezer space without the use of huge quantities of salt then freezing soup is the way to go.
For many fruits such as black/red/whitecurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and other smaller fruit, jams and jellies are the way to go for nutritional value. They last a year or more with almost no nutritional value loss.
Combine the two and you are well on the way to living on your own produce through winter.
If you are really serious about self-sufficiency then i would suggest that you look at potatoes and apples which can be stored in cool, dark conditions in their whole state if you choose the correct varieties.
Drying legumes also involves no salt and they can last almost indefinitely if stored correctly. Along with potatoes and apples they can provide the roughage which is necessary for a good diet.
Oh, yes i forgot the most valuable of all, onions. They store for almost a year and add lots of nutritional value and flavour to many dishes.
Squashes are brilliant for storing if they are in a cool place, my butternuts kept well into spring and I have still got some 'vegetable spaghetti' sitting in the store in perfect condition....mostly because I now need a chain saw to get through the skin .
Perhaps him indoors will have a go with the axe!
When I get into the last one I shall keep the seeds, as I really like these.
Split, deseeded and baked in the oven with garlic and rosemary for about an hour, the flesh can be forked out and is exactly like spaghetti but NO calories