Pickled Apricots

Today I would like to share two really great variations of apricot pickle with you.

If you like a bit of tang and like pickled veggies, you may love the taste of pickled apricots!

Pickled apricots go well with cheese dishes, like our typical winter Raclette (a Swiss Cheese Dish)

First up:

Pickled Apricots

For this recipe you will need:

1kg Firm Apricots, halved and pitted

600ml White Wine Vinegar

500g Sugar

1 Cinnamon stick 

(If using more than 1 jar break in half so that each jar will have a piece)

2-3 Cloves

8-10 Peppercorns

Canning Jar/s

 In a pot place the water, vinegar, sugar and herbs.

Bring to a rolling boil and the place the apricots inside for 2 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and place the apricots into your jar/s.

Bring the liquid once more to a rolling boil and boil for another 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and pour over the fruit straight away, dividing the spices between the jars if you are using more than one..

Fill the jar with the liquid until just under the rim (if need be boil a little more vinegar to fill jar), seal and place the jar on it's head.

After 5 - 10 minutes turn jar upright and allow to cool.

Check the vacuum once cool (the lid should be slightly concave)

Label and store.

Sweet and Sour Apricots

For this recipe you will need:

1kg Firm Apricots, halved and pitted

150 ml water

300ml White wine vinegar

500g sugar

2 Star Anis

3cm Root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

3-4 Cardamon pods

Canning jar/s

In a pot place the water, vinegar, sugar and herbs.

Bring to a rolling boil and the place the apricots inside for 2 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and place the apricots into your jar/s.

Bring the liquid once more to a rolling boil and boil for another 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and pour over the fruit straight away, again dividing the spices between the jars if you are using more than one.

Fill liquid to just under the rim of the jar (if need be boil a little more vinegar and water at a 2:1 ratio to fill jar), seal and place the jar on it's head.

After 5 - 10 minutes turn jar upright and allow to cool.

Check the vacuum once cool 

Label and store for the wintry months, or until you can't bear it any longer and need to try it ;)

I would love to hear your feedback on how you liked these pickles.

Do you make fruit pickles?

Until next time

x

Apricots a Little Differently

Apricots are on special at the local store this week, so I bought 4kg of them.

Now, we are not a big apricot jam kind of a family and I only need apricots for a couple of recipes that I have on hand, but I bought these apricots with a definite scheme in mind namely - Winter and Pickles!

The first plan was to add some apricots to our Rum Pot.

To do so, I cut the apricots in half and covered them with sugar for an hour.

I then added them and the sugar to the pot which I started to fill in March

As you can see (if you can, the pot is very dark so the photos just don't come out like I hope :(), the strawberries have lost their wonderful red colour to the rum, but it does smell rather good already :)

Once I added the apricots, I topped the pot up with some more rum to make sure that all my fruit is covered, replaced the upturned plate and then put it aside again.

(If you would like to make your own Rum Pot for the upcoming Winter and festive season you can read how to Here)

Once that was done I went about making the pickles.

Join me tomorrow to find out how to make some amazing pickled apricots to delight your palette over the winter months.

Have you made a rum pot before?
Do you add anything extraordinary to it?

See you tomorrow.
x

Rumtopf - Rum Pot

One of my favourite things to do, once all the various spring and summer fruit start to show themselves, is to put together a "Rumtopf" or "Rum-Pot" directly translated, which basically boils down to laying fruit in rum over many months. The end result is, well yummy!

I will continue posting about my Rum pot as I fill it up with this and that as the various fruits come into season, so do follow my blog and keep yourself updated on progress and various how-tos :-D

My tip for a rum pot is this: Try to use local FRESH produce in season for the best taste, and if possible organic (I know this is not always possible, so just wash the fruit you are using before adding them to the pot).

The rule of thumb for this recipe is - half as much sugar as fruit, and cover with rum. Simple right!

Okay, so what will you need to start up? 

You will need:

A rum pot or a large wide-necked glass container with lid. 

A saucer or plate that fits comfortably into your container

(a great alternative is to use a plastic picnic plate which you can cut to the size of your container, it needs to fit snuggly)

Rum - enough to keep each batch of fruit covered

Sugar

Fruit which is ripe, but not overly ripe!

Start by weighing out the fruit you will be putting inside the pot, wash it and cut into pieces. Weigh out half as much sugar. I cut the stems off the strawberries and cut them in half.

Lay them in the pot, and cover them with the sugar.

Cover with rum so that the fruit is fully submersed.

Place your plate upside down on top of the fruit to hold it under the liquid. This is an important step, as if the fruit float to the top of the liquid they can start to go moldy, so totally submersed is the key!

Cover your pot with its lid. I also cover my lid and pot with cling-wrap as my lid does not seal, so for the extra protection.

Allow to stand in a cool area.

I only had strawberries and so I started with them. If you have more local produce available to you at the same time, then you would go ahead and add each of the layers of fruit, sugar and rum until all your fruit is inside and covered with liquid. 

Here is a list of fruits that I found via Google which should and shouldn't go inside your pot! I really stick to local here and end up generally adding the following: cherries, plums, peaches, prunes, grapes, and strawberries. I have put in cantaloupe one year and it didn't turn out all too badly, but it was rather a firm melon!

Fruits that work well in the rum pot:

Pineapple (remove rind & core and cut in large cubes)

Cherries (I don't pit mine, but feel free to do so)

Apricots (halves, pitted)

Nectarines (halves, pitted) 

Peaches (remove pits and cut in halves, quarters, or slices)

Plums (remove seed and half or quarter)

Grapes (sweet seedless red or green grapes are ideal)

Strawberries (don't wash, just remove stem & leaves).  Strawberries will soften and lose their bright red color as the soak up the rum. 

Raspberries (don't wash). Raspberries will lose some of their bright red color.

Red currants (removed from stem)

Gooseberries (remove stems)

The following fruits are not recommended:

Blackberries or Blueberries (they can be bitter and can discolor the other fruits)

Watermelon and Cantaloupe chunks (can make the mixture watery)

Rhubarb (can make mixture sour)

Bananas (too mushy)

Citrus (too acidic)

Apples (take on an odd texture)

Kiwi fruit

My rum-pot will now stand in my cellar until I have my next batch of fruit and then I will top it up with the new and again allow to stand. The pot should be filled by autumn where it will once again stand until around Christmas time. 

I generally find that I make one of these once every two years and they last just as long. It is absolutely delicious over vanilla ice-cream or just like that after a hearty meal. Wonderfully warming! But do be careful, it can be quite potent!

Hope you enjoy making your Rum pot.

x

P.S. I originally posted this post on my blog, Marigolds' Loft in 2012 but I felt it would be nice to have it here as a reference for those of you who need it, I have updated it with the relevant extras  :) 

Sun and Then Snow!

Yesterday Stefan and I finished sowing the second lot of our two square foot gardens. 

We had removed the plastic cover as the temperatures rose to a wonderful 24°C. The seedlings in bed one (on the left in the above image) have all started to poke their heads through the soil, except for the radishes which are well on their way.

We have covered the bigger plants that were being eaten by snails and slugs, with some PET bottles. I think that the snails got into the bed because we had a lot of plants growing up the sides of the raised beds - creating a highway to heaven! We have since removed all of those plants and hope that the covers will help them along the way.

Whilst we were planting in the second bed we noticed that the bees were acting rather strangely - we had a typical "swarm beard" on the front of the hive.

Sensing that this might actually be what they were planning on doing, we quickly reassembled the hive which I removed a couple of weeks ago (I still haven't had a chance to sand and repaint it as the weather has not been ideal ;( ), and they started to swarm inside of it!

Could we be in luck? A new bee family 😀 Tomorrow will tell! #swarming #bees

A video posted by Natalie Buehler (@marigoldsloft) on May 13, 2015 at 10:15am PDT

Today is the last day of the "Ice Saints" being Cold Sofia. The weather forecast predicted temperatures of 8°C today. I covered all my balcony plants but thought that the garden would be okay.

Shortly after lunch the girls called me to look out of the window. 

What did I see?

Snow!!!!

Within a couple of minutes the heavy snowfall had covered our beds completely and didn't look like it would ever stop!

The thermometer recorded a wonderfully chilly 1°C and the snow just kept on coming down!

Now I am holding thumbs that the plants will survive it!

As I am writing this the snowfall has reduced drastically and the snow on the ground has almost all disappeared.

As soon as the sun is up tomorrow I will be out to inspect the poor things.

I will let you know how things look tomorrow.
x

P.S. I have just bought my first liter of organic cow milk - I know that sounds really weird, but we have always used UHT because of it's long shelf life. We bought it straight from the farmer, who got it from the cow, LOL! 

It doesn't get more fresh than that!

Do you buy local?
Do you buy organic?