I live an hour away from town and go shopping once a fortnight but by the time week two comes around all the vegies are limp...I have put a gigantic vegie garden in (this is why I havent done any comps for weeeeeeks) and have about twenty fully grown fruit trees...anyways I want to get into making relishes,freezing,pickles ,jams and bottling only thing is I dont know how to do it although I am a very good cook and good at instructions I was wondering if anyone has any preserving books they dont want or need....trying to teach the kids to eat fresh and healthy without spending a fortune on something we can do ourselves..

If not no harm in asking aye

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...All the best for 2010...

Congrats on the vegie garden...and wonderful to have so many fruit trees..Wish you were closer - I could maybe teach you heaps about preserving, in exchange for digging/planting my garden & advice re that...
Not sure I have any books I want to part with at this stage - But I could email you a few recipes (relish, jam etc)
You could try your local Mary Potter (or any other charity shop) - they seem to get a lot of stuff from "older" people... Previous generations were more into preserving etc but it is all coming back again -
Pity now, I sold my preserving gear - I used to preserve fruit & tomatoes in a "Vacola outfit" but if you can buy the preserving jars you can do it in the oven just as easily... You could also think about drying fruit & veg in either then microwave or a sunbeam (?) drying stacker

Have you tried googling for advice?? or try Freecycle or Gum Tree - both places you can place a wanted ad for these things...

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It is such a great idea, and if you get some nice preserving jars you can do sets of pickles and jams for xmas gifts!

The edmonds book has some great relishes, pickles etc I use all the time!

aww that is a great idea...I have been given boxes of jars so will use them up...kids could make pretty tags for them BINGO

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...All the best for 2010...