Pickling

I just love this time of year when you can smell autumn in the air. It's a time to start preparing for the long cold winter. Wood is stacked, woolie cardi's come out, throws quilts and blankets are laundered and aired and the last of the harvest is dug out of the garden and preserved. We've had a glut of tomatoes this year and so have our friends so even though I'm generally not a condiment kinda girl, I decided to try and make some chutneys that I would like. I thought about spices and flavours that I like and banished any notions of vinegary, runny concoctions made with some stuff called 'ezi sauce'.

I looked at several recipes for quantities and methods but then adapted them. And I have been so pleased with the result. So for anyone who prefers a thick, sweet, spicy chutney flavoured with honey and all spice, I've put my recipe for Green Tomato and Greengage Chutney and Sweet Tomato Chutney on my recipes page, click the tab at the top.

It's very yummy with cheeses and cold meats. I'll share the beetroot marmalade recipe when I can find where I wrote it down! It's taken me several attempts to get this right, but it's absolutely flippin gorgeous. Even Maggie asks for "some of that red stuff". Happy pickling peeps.