Follow the Seasons
To start at the end of the story, my preserve was a lemon and fig chutney harvested from our humongous fig tree in the back garden that provides us and many others with more than we can handle. Autumn is always such a busy time of year; it’s a mad rush of harvesting the last of the soft summer fruit and berries while making sure we get a good haul of apple and pear that can be stored throughout the winter.
At a time when food is in the utmost abundance, it’s time to get preserving and this would be my top tip for anyone getting into preserving, follow the seasons. There is a lot of free fruit to be foraged in Christchurch, or even if you head to the local veggie shop there are plenty of deals to be had with super ripe produce that is in peak season. This way you’re not too concerned about the cost should something go wrong, and I have had many burnt pots and unsealed jars that have ended in heartache along the way.
There is a lot more to preserving than just jams and chutneys though, we make all kinds of fruit paste, dried fruits, leathers, liquors, vinegars and cordials. You’ll find you have favourite things to do at different times of the year; in summer I prefer to dehydrate fruit into chewy sweet snacks, or puree them and make them into fruit roll ups. Amazing way to get fruit into the kids lunch boxes. In autumn I am making chutneys to have with paté and cheese.
My journey into preserving started with my grandparents who, I just realised as I am writing this, used to do the exact same thing with me. We would go out and forage blackberries and apples as kids, and then come home and stain the kitchen purple as well boiling them down, but this was their way of getting some wholesome food into us. As I got older and I started foraging more, my grandad told me that as a kid they used to have elderberry syrup in the house made every year; this was their cough medicine back then, a super dose of antioxidants, and vitamin C as an immune booster when you got sick. So I set about making him some. I remember I boiled it down so hard and it set so thick, the only way you could take it out was to spoon it out and dissolve it in boiling water.
That’s the reason I entered the competition. It reminded me of my grandparents and the kind of thing they did in the old days. I didn’t even think I had a chance of winning. I just thought it would be cool to do something my grandparents did, since they inspired me to learn the skill in the first place.
Adam Harrison, keen forager and lover of preserves, December 2024.
If you’re keen to enter the 2025 Annual Preserve Contest, or simply interested in the wonderful stories that come with preserves, keep your eye on the Richmond Community Garden Facebook page, or watch this space!