A Store Cupboard for the Year

One thing I love about having a bigger garden and growing my own food is not only being able to cook and enjoy eating the produce but also to be able to make jams, chutneys, tisanes (herbal teas) and other things that I can store away to enjoy all through the year.

When I end up with too much vegetable and fruit to eat and I can’t give it away quick enough, I have started to fill my freezer with the excess. Things like runner beans, French beans, courgettes, tomatoes and raspberries all freeze really well and can be taken out and enjoyed through the winter.

For courgettes I just chop them into chunks and freeze in freezer bags, they are only really good for soup once de-frosted as they do go very watery. For any type of beans it’s best to blanche them lightly in boiling water, plunge them into ice cold water so they stay nice and green, dry well on kitchen towel before freezing. I always try to lay them out on a tray to freeze first so they don’t freeze in a big lump, then move into freezer bags.

Fresh fruit like raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants all freeze well. After giving them a rinse under the tap I lay the freshly picked fruit on a tray outside, not in direct sunlight and allow them to dry any bugs to crawl off. I then place them on a tray, in a single layer and freeze, so they basically freeze individually. I then move them into freezer bags.

If you want to freeze excess tomatoes then I usually roast them in the oven with lots of sliced onion, garlic and fresh herbs. Allow them to cool, you can blend them into a coulis aswell, then freeze. They make delicious tomato soup or sauce when de-frosted and used.

I have really enjoyed making jams and chutneys over the last few years, my go-to books have been the wonderful collection of River Cottage Handbooks I was gifted some years ago. The Preserves book No.2 by Pam Corbin is an excellent book to learn from and try some of her many wonderful and inspiring recipes.

The blackcurrants I grow and any excess raspberries are made into jam and stored away for use all year. Around where I live, although in the French Alps the lower woodland and small fields are full of old fruit trees. Many variety of crab apples, eating apples, plum and cherry can be found and I am becoming a good scrumper of the late summer and autumn fruit that otherwise falls to waist in the fields!! It is made into wonderful jams and chutney’s eaten with cheese and other meals.

Before the frosts and the snow arrived this winter I have picked and kept some of my lemon verbena and also some rosemary. The rosemary is great for cooking but also I love it in a homemade herbal tea along with some lemon verbena leaves. I have moved my mint and lemon balm pots into the garage for the winter. I love a lemon balm leaf or 2 in a tisane especially at night as it promotes good sleep. I store mine in brown paper bags but jam jars are a good option too.

A condiment I like to make regularly is a herb salt, it’s easy to make and really delicious to use as seasoning on food. I try to buy good quality salt in flakes like a Fleur de Sel from the Camargue and then a pick a mixture of herbs from my garden. This can be rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, marjoram, mint, chives, parsley…. You can use almost any herb, use whatever you have growing. Grind it up in a pestle and mortar until the herbs are well broken up into small pieces and the salt now in fine grains. Sometimes I add some peppercorns for an all round seasoning.