Need to think ahead: storage advice for homegrown fruit and veg

[WilfSell]

We are very lucky and have moved into a house with three apple trees and a crab apple. And DH has gone all green fingered and we now have - later hopefully - a harvest of tomatoes, pumpkins, broad beans, spinach...

In the event of having more than we can eat at once (pretty likely), anyone got any ideas for storage and freezing and cooking (tomato sauces? things with pumpkins? jam?)

I am not at all Good Life (more a ready meal kind of girl ) so it's all a bit new to me - I will need a book with idiot proof instructions for making jam for example!

Apples
Stew it and freeze
Make into chutney (shout if you want a yummy basic recipe)
Most stuff can eithe r be frozen, cooked then frozen, dried, bottled or stored in various other ways.

hang on I do know of some books that may help you rather than spouting loads of ideas it may be easier.

I'm very jealous of your produce.

My parents have had this book for years and I am always borrowing it.

How to store your garden produce- Piers Warren

Jam- Do you have a bread maker?

Ooh that looks good redwino

There is a brilliant government book - invented in ww1 I think but still updated, on Home Preserving, written by the Central Office of Information, or something, which is brilliant. My mother swears by her 50s copy, and has bought me one too. here you go. Written for people why may not have done it before, it will tell you everything. The Marguerite Patten book they;'re advertising with it is supposed to be good too.

Do you have an outhouse or an attic, because you can just store the pumpkins, that's easy. Freeze broad beans (uncooked) spinach (as puree) - but the spinach you can probably just keep cutting until it gets too woody. And yes, tomato sauces, and also red tomato chutney (mmmm). And you can freeze apple pure too - make the rest into blackberry and apple jam.

There is a brilliant government book - invented in ww1 I think but still updated, on Home Preserving, written by the Central Office of Information, or something, which is brilliant. My mother swears by her 50s copy, and has bought me one too. here you go. Written for people why may not have done it before, it will tell you everything. The Marguerite Patten book they;'re advertising with it is supposed to be good too.

Do you have an outhouse or an attic, because you can just store the pumpkins, that's easy. Freeze broad beans (uncooked) spinach (as puree) - but the spinach you can probably just keep cutting until it gets too woody. And yes, tomato sauces, and also red tomato chutney (mmmm). And you can freeze apple pure too - make the rest into blackberry and apple jam.

My parents bought theirs years ago so it may be a bit old fashioned in some ways but it has everything you need to know in it.
By the way, I tried jam in my breadmaker and it was a disaster but that might be just me.

I tried it in my breadmaker and it wasn't as good but it was edible so if doing it in a pan seems too scary it may be worth a go. Just a small amount to start.

Vonsudenfed I cant get the link to work because for some reason I can naver get on amazon (probably good thing)
what was the book called so I can google please

Jamisn't difficut to make,but if you'#re nervous (or have a toddler) you m ay prefer to use one of these.

half the toms, squirt them with some orange juice and olive oil and season, then leave them on a tray in the low oven at somethinng ludicrious like 100deg overnight and they should come out semi-cuit and be lovely stored in a kilner jar in oil.

Aitch I did this (though with sugar not orange juice) with some tomatoes the other day and they were lovely. Have vague plans to make a solar dehydrator so I can do it without using any electricity. Apparently sticking stuff in the car on a hot day works too.

It's called The Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables, and it's published by the Ministry of Agriculture.

You could probably get it 2nd hand on Abebooks for thruppence - and if you can't find it, let me know, as I suspect my mother has bought it for me more than once (she is almost evangelically keen on it, but given the quality of her tomato chutney, I can see why).

i can ONLY imagine the looks my car would get parked on the street with trays of toms on them...

LOL

... apparently dehydrated strawberries are nice and make your car smell delicious.

Oh thanks so much for all your suggestions. Will get back to them once I have got over my NIT CRISIS. Which is what saturday nights are for...

The breadmaker things sounds as dubious as the woman at the fish counter telling me to poach salmon in my dishwasher...