Bottling the Goodness – Preserving from my Garden, an e-book giveaway!

Preserving allows me to enjoy the produce from my garden all year round.

I only started growing my own vegetables a few years ago. I am not an expert but what I lack in years of experience I make up for in enthusiasm and love of the ingredients. I find preserving a satisfying way to make use of excess fruit or vegetables, and to savour the flavour of my home grown goodies for as long as possible after the season ends – however I do not preserve more product than my family would consume within 6-8 months.

Summer is the main period I have produce from my own garden, but preserving is not an activity that is confined to abundant summer crops. You can preserve at any time of the year, and across the remainder of the seasons I source good quality local produce. I admit to being a little addicted to preserving, last spring I planted extra produce purely to have it available to preserve.

Following a flurry of activity around March this year, I have been back into the swing of preserving again this month, taking advantage of the winter citrus fruits. Winter is the perfect time to stock up your cupboard with marmalade and you can find my Cointreau Spiked Tangelo Marmalade here.

Preserving is not difficult and you do not need any specialty equipment, the main reasons I like to preserve are:

• I feel a need to know what is in the food I eat and feed to my children, family and friends. If I have grown the ingredients I know they are not sprayed with any chemicals. I know the quality of the seeds used to grow the plants, and I know the quality of the other ingredients used.
• Home preserved food tastes better than any store purchased product and is hugely satisfying.
• I enjoy eating the produce I love even when the season is long past.
• It is an economical way to use excess produce that you have grown. This not only avoids waste but also has a positive environmental impact based on sourcing your food at your back door rather than having it transported to a store, packaged, marketed etc.
• Preserves are a convenient base for many meals including pasta, curries, dips, stir fries, and so much more!!
• I can create recipes to suit my family’s tastes. I select the ingredients and the quantities and can experiment with a range of flavours that I may not otherwise try.
• They make great gifts for friends and family.

As a special treat for Seasonal Sunday Lunch readers I’m giving away two copies of my preserving e-book!

I have taught myself to preserve and have collated a variety of my favourite preserves recipes in my e-book Bottling the Goodness – Preserving from my Garden.

The e-book is an easy guide to jams, sauces, relishes and chutneys, and allows you to get started straight away – no special equipment required.

Enter below to win a copy of Bottling the Goodness – Preserving from my Garden:

• Leave a comment on this post sharing: What fruit or vegetable would you most like to have past it’s seasonal availability? Do you use a method to preserve it, or just wait until it is available again the next year?
• Log your entry in the tool just below using Facebook or an email address: Record your comment entry in the widget to reveal all sorts of other ways you can enter.
• That’s it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Only entries recorded in the widget will count. Giveaway open until 11.59pm Friday 16 August (Sydney time). Prize includes a copy of ‘Bottling the Goodness – Preserving from my Garden’ by Kyrstie Barack. Giveaway open worldwide, two winners randomly selected  from valid entries.

Bottling the Goodness – Preserving from my Garden includes:

• Twelve easy recipes that have been tested and enjoyed many times over
• A selection of recipe types including sweet and savoury Jams, Chutney, Relish, and Sauces
• Instructions for sterilising, storing and testing for setting point, as well as many other tips I have found helpful since I started preserving
• Handy printable jar labels
• Simple conversion information for metric/imperial
• An easy to read, portable PDF format ready to print or view on an iPad or laptop while you are cooking

You can click here to purchase a copy for just $4.95

[Editor note: Thanks again to Kyrstie for supplying two copies of her book for our first giveaway! Make sure to check out her Cointreau Spiked Tangelo Marmalade recipe.]

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