Boxes full

Yesterday evening, I picked up three boxes of glass jars from a grateful lady in North Leeds. Since her husband had stopped driving, she had built up quite a collection in the garage and would undoubtedly have loved me to take the lot.

For better or worse, I couldn’t fit more than about half in the boot of my car. And there is nowhere for me to store those I’ve acquired, so they will have to live in the front room until I can create some space in the shed. Or the loft maybe?

In any case, my theory is that I won’t run out of glass jars any time soon. Which means there are no excuses not to preserve, preserve and preserve.

In turn, this meant that today I could pick the cooking apples and start turning them into blackberry curd (there is apple in the recipe). I find curd the easiest of all the preserves to make, although it is also the most expensive due to the eggs and butter it requires.

Fortunately, there is no lack of apples. Many are very small – presumably unfertilised – and the rest would probably have been bigger if I’d been more ruthless when thinning them out. Oh well, a lesson for next year, should the tree be similarly laden.