Preserving Our Fruit for
Winter Enjoyment
Freezing Pie Fillings
Fresh peach pie is delicious, but to enjoy pie in the
winter, I freeze the filling like this: Line your pie plate with
plastic wrap larger than the pie plate. Mix the filling using
fresh sliced peaches + sugar + corn starch. Pour filling into
pie plate, and leaving the plastic open, place in freezer overnight.
Remove frozen filling form by pulling the plastic away from the
pie plate. Tape plastic wrap shut with masking tape. Put frozen
pie filling in a second plastic bag, labelled, and return to the
freezer. To bake, line pie plate with fresh pastry and remove
plastic from frozen filling. Cover with top pastry. Put in microwave
on high for 10 minutes to begin thawing filling. Then bake as
usual in regular oven at 450 F for 15 minutes, and 350 F for 35
minutes.
Fruit Jam
We have been using light recipes
using Certo Light pectin, and have been happy with both their
freezer and cooked recipes. We have really enjoyed mixes of fruits
by combining 2 half recipes, cooking them together and bottling
them. Our favourite mixes are:
- Peach - Apricot Jam
- Cherry - Raspberry Jam
- Peach - Raspberry Jam
- Plum - Raspberry Jam
- Raspberry - Blueberry Jam
- Strawberry - Rhubarb Jam
Tips on Canning
Canned fruit is one of
our family favourites and once you are organized with the right
equipment, it is fairly simple. In preparation, you should gather
up the following items:
- large canning kettle with rack
- canning jars - pints or quarts
- canning lids
- pot for boiling water to scald peaches
- pot to boil lids
- pot to boil canning syrup
- water, sugar, fruit
- towels
- nice to have
- jar lifter, magnet to lift lids from hot water, extra hands
for peeling and filling jars
As the canning season approaches, check
back for a list of how-to-do and some sites of interest.
Tips on Freezing
We like frozen strawberries
and raspberries the best, and often freeze ground fruit ready
to make jam later in the winter when we hope we have more time.
We freeze our strawberries washed and whole, sometimes with a
little sugar. We freeze raspberries the same way, but sometimes
freeze them individually on trays with no sugar and stored in
bags.
Peaches are also good in frozen slices with some Fruit Freeze
on them to prevent discoloration. Some of you may remember my Aunt Dorothy from
the Fruit Wagon - she liked to freeze them in orange juice to prevent browning.
As the freezing season approaches, check
back for a list of how-to-do and some sites of interest.
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