Anyone bottling or preserving?

[Babelange]

Foraged what I thought were giant sloes yesterday which turned out to be (once I had my glasses on at home) damsons so today I made damson gin and damson jam - having to lay on the sofa now having swabbed down the whole kitchen - who would have thought jam would get everywhere! I normally wait a few weeks and pick later in August but the pickings have been getting slimmer over the years so taking into consideration the hot weather, I ventured out with DS2 who is nice and tall and can reach the high branches for me.
Tomorrow onto Apple chutney (Nigella Domestic Goddess) - I forgot to pick up root ginger.
Lots of effort for only a small handful of jars - although I have a DF who is a big fan and DH looks forward to our Christmas tipple of sloe gin with cheese & crackers - and a Christmas 'cocktail' with prosecco (but damson this time).
I reuse jam jars and used Tesco vouchers for a big bottle of gin but had to buy a jam thermometer as I only tried jam once and that was disastrous... Had no idea the jam had to be so hot (as in heat full blast and stand back, holding pan at arm's length!) - oh yeah, not sure this can be called economical!
Anyone care to share their domestic goddessness?
Posted on chat but no one wanted to chat

Anything I can do with rose hips?

Absolutely loads - rosehip syrup, rosehip jelly, dehydrate them and add to cereals. Yum.

We get tons of stuff in from the garden and use some fresh but mostly it gets made in to sauces, jams and alcohol!

Tomatoes (soups and pasta sauce)
courgettes, potatoes, peas, green beans and cucumbers all eaten fresh
chilies get dried and then ground into the fiercest chilly flakes imaginable.
apples and pears (sauces)
damsons (gin mostly, but jam too)
rhubarb gets made into crumbles that we pull out of the freezer throughout the year
strawberries, red currents, black currants, gooseberries, raspberries ar all mostly jams but some go into crumbles.
squashes (soups)

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, and we do different things, sweetcorn last year. It' a tiny garden but is completely turned over to food production. We also have a ton of herbs.

I don't think we save money, and it's so time consuming, but the fresh produce is so nice.

sloes are round and damsons are elongated. damsons are bigger than sloes but you need to know them fo rthat comparison to be of help!

I'm going out foraging over the next few days. I might post my haul to check what they are! I'm pretty sure they are sloes.

@dudsville - I think you save money on top quality "locally sourced " produce. It's rarely going to be cheaper than cheap high volume stuff because you can't compete with economies of scale. Tasted my first home grown tomato today. Absolutely bloody gorgeous.

I agree with that bellin. And I remember our first carrot - actual carrot juice came out of it when I cut in to it. It's so much better.

I've just made a big batch of lemon marmalade using a really easy recipe someone gave me on here a couple of years ago. Our lemon tree has a never ending supply this time of year so I tend to make a few batches of the marmalade to last till next winter. Produce is very seasonal here, so when the strawberries come out in summer I will make a load of jam too. Apples are really cheap at the moment too (lots of orchards here) so I might try some of your apple ideas!

I always try with tomatoes but I hate peeling them, is it vital to peel them or could you strain after do you think?

why do you peel the tomatoes? We don't and I don't mind but OH will sometimes push aside a bit of skin. We cut our fresh toms in half and drizzle olive oil (sometimes with added herb or garlic) and slow cook in the oven and then blitz for sauces and soups.

Stick tomatoes in the freezer and then when frozen put into water. Peels come off. If, like me, you are a nerd with a dehydrator, dry the peels and then make tomato powder. I feel like a Viz extract saying that.