[melodrama]

I am so proud of myself this week, I have made strawberry jam, plum and almond jam(yum), courgette chutney and plum, pear and apple chutney!  I also went brambling yesterday and am going to make some apple and bramble jelly tomorrow.  We eat so much of that kind of stuff in my house that I can never seem to make enough to keep 4 teenagers and a hubby happy!  Only problem is that I now need to buy more jars (AGAIN) and sort out the pantry/larder as it has too much junk in it.  How is everyone else getting on with pickling, jamming and jellying out there?
Melanie

[doganjo]

Brambles not ready here, hoping to get some plums on Thursday if Elled has any left.  Made a few jars of apple chutney with what the thieves left me.  Might fall heir to some grapes later on so more home made wine to do.  Got loads of rhubarb in the freezer waiting fro em to have some time to do something with that.

[little blue]

do you have freecycle / freagle in your area?
theres often offers or requests for jars on my local  one...

[suziequeue]

I've made a couple of batches of plum jam and the raspberries are in the freezer waiting to go to the great jam maker in the sky. Ditto tomatoes.... they'll be going into Kilner jars as passata.

I'm quite keen to try HFW's green tomato marmalade once the crop stops ripening but I'm still getting loads of big fat red toms every day  so much better than last year.....

[calamityjane]

try putting an ad on www.ilovefreegle.org or freecycle seen lots of people offering jars wish i had decided to reply or keep some had a look at the recipes on here lots of recipes to try dogandjo there is apple trees at the carpark at blairlogie i'm sure there is a field full of apple trees there too i give mine to ponies and now the p[igs taz my saddleback loves fruit same with my little kune pig

[Millwood]

You could try asking local cafes for jam jars, we get a carrier bag full every week from the one we have our stall outside of.

[SallyintNorth]

Anyone near me - I always have plenty of jam jars and am always happy to swap a load of empties for a full one! 

[benkt]

I've been working through piles of pears and damsons this week. So far, I've made some pear conserve - low pectin so a poor set but very tasty). Bottled another batch of pears in cinnamon syrup - lovely with ice cream. A big batch of damson jam worked well, but plums are always easy to get to set. I also tried making some 'damson cheese' which I finally got to set nice and firm. Now just waiting for the pigs to come back from the butcher and I'll have some brawn to eat it with.

[Greenerlife]

I've made piccalili, rhubarb chutney, bottled plums in syrup and Galliano (I've had the bottle years and years, so I thought, why not?  ) and yesterday made gallons of Thai Pumpkin soup for the freezer (I am sure my freezer is better fed than me!) and also pumpkin and ginger jam.  Also got huge quantities of sloe gin, and raspberry vodka and blackberry vodka on the go.  i am having to revert to the old ways of bottling to preserve as I have now run out of room in my freezers due to my pigs going a couple of weeks ago, and ou always forget how much room they take up even if I do make my own bacon and hams!

[doganjo]

dogandjo there is apple trees at the carpark at blairlogie i'm sure there is a field full of apple trees there too i give mine to ponies and now the p[igs taz my saddleback loves fruit same with my little kune pig

I know the hillfoots road quite well and where the farm shop/coffee bothy is - where is the car park?

[Rosemary]

I've been working through piles of pears and damsons this week. So far, I've made some pear conserve - low pectin so a poor set but very tasty). Bottled another batch of pears in cinnamon syrup - lovely with ice cream. A big batch of damson jam worked well, but plums are always easy to get to set. I also tried making some 'damson cheese' which I finally got to set nice and firm. Now just waiting for the pigs to come back from the butcher and I'll have some brawn to eat it with.

Any chance of your pears in cinnamon syrup recipe, please?

[melodrama]

I've been working through piles of pears and damsons this week. So far, I've made some pear conserve - low pectin so a poor set but very tasty). Bottled another batch of pears in cinnamon syrup - lovely with ice cream. A big batch of damson jam worked well, but plums are always easy to get to set. I also tried making some 'damson cheese' which I finally got to set nice and firm. Now just waiting for the pigs to come back from the butcher and I'll have some brawn to eat it with.

Any chance of your pears in cinnamon syrup recipe, please?

Just what I was thinking Rosemary, they sound great!

[ellisr]

My thoughts exactly Rosemary

[Sylvia]

Put a card in the Post Office or ouside your house "Empty jars with lids wanted"

[Olly398]

I keep old jam jars and lids for odd batches of stuff around the house - and me "experiments"  , but for nicer things I bit the bullet and purchased 30 x 500ml "Kilner Style" jars from this eBay seller, which worked out at about £1.60 each, delivered.

The quality is very nice and I did 13lb of rhubarb chutney last night, so they came just in time. Look great and much nicer for gifts or bartering. Incluiding the auxilary ingredients it worked out about the same as buying Branstons - a quite inferior product although I do say so myself, AND you get a lovely reusable jar to boot.