By Nicki Sunderland
I love preserves! If you have time, it is so lovely to make your own and what a great way to savour the taste of summer right through winter and use up all that excess fruit going brown in the fruit bowl.
You can recycle your own jam jars, or pop down to the Sallie Army and grab some from there, or The Warehouse do a nice range of cheap jars if you want them matching or you could buy them online www.arthurholmes.co.nz for gorgeous pickling and preserving goodness!
Peach Chutney - gorgeous with cheddar cheese!
INGREDIENTS
1 kg stoned and peeled ripe peaches
3 1/2 cups malt vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100g preserved ginger, finely chopped
500g dates, finely chopped
500g raisins
1 kg brown sugar
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp salt
DIRECTIONS
1. Chop the peaches fairly finely and boil them in the vinegar with the garlic until the peaches are soft.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Spoon into hot, clean jars and seal tightly. This makes about 3 litres.
Do you still have an Edmonds Cookbook? If so, there are great instructions in there on different bottling and sealing methods.