This is what happens when your parents own a farm.

Last week we visited Hendy’s parents on their farm down in Southland and returned laden with the fruits of their kitchen garden, literally. I also have a roll of muslin cloth and a fat stack of old Good magazines to be used in later projects.

But today, I’m going to try my hand at preserving.

Immediately this feels a little strange. Mothers and grandmothers preserve. Little old ladies with white doilies and knitted tea-cosies preserve. Farmer’s wives and the kind of people who run bake sales’ preserve. Not intelligent young people in their mid-twenties with social lives and twitter and conversation.

And I guess this attitude just contributes to the problem. Way back when, activities like preserving and cooking and gardening aided survival. Kitchen gardens added to rations and grocery budgets, easy take-out was limited to fish and chips, and fancy sauces were expensive – why buy what you could make yourself? But who has time to do all that nowadays, especially when you can just spend money on quick meals and throw-away containers.

So, in an effort to reduce my waste, and eat local and in season, I’m going to take these apples, pears, tomatoes and peaches, freshly handpicked from Lumsden, Southland, and stick some of ’em in a pot so they’ll hopefully last longer.

I have no idea what I’m doing.

Like any mid-twenties woman who has no idea what she’s doing, I turn to Google. Immediately I’m overwhelmed by the pages of information on alternative ways to preserve pears. After flicking through a few suggestions, feeling daunted by how unexpectedly the process seemed to be, I did what any sane person would do.

I called mum.

And here’s what she told me to do:

1. Preheat Your oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. Wash your jars and lids in hot, soapy water.
3. Place them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
4. While this is all happening, stew your fruit. I used pears – pealed them, cored them, and cut them into quarters and stuck them in a pot. I poured in some water until they were half covered, and added about two large teaspoons of honey to make a thin syrup to act as the preserving agent. I brought them to the boil for about 5min so the pears were a little softer but not mushy.
5.  When the fruit is ready, take out your jar and lid and pour the hot fruit into the hot jar. Fill the jars nearly to the brim. Tighten the lids.
6. When the lids ‘pop’ they should be sealed.

Sustainability test - pears grown organically (these trees are literally left to their own devices down there) from 600km away. Great.
 New Zealand honey bought at a supermarket. Processing unknown and in a plastic container. Average.

I followed her instructions and everything seemed to work out, once the jars cooled the lids caved in slightly, which suggested they were sealed. However, I returned to the internet, wanting to research a little bit more about the water-bath method when I saw that the oven method is now not regarded as the perfect way to sterilise jars. When I tried to research what the oven method was, deeply suspicious that it was exactly what I just did, I struggled to find a right answer. I’d love some advice is anyone has it.

For a moment, my heart sank at the mere possibility that all these pears would be wasted. It’s only day 1 and I’m already making mistakes! But then, that’s what happens when you try something new. Mistakes are made to be learnt from. So if you go into your store cupboard next season and see your sauces and bottled fruit covered in mould, just know that mine are probably just the same. Laugh, figure out what you did wrong, and try again.

But sometimes trial and error pays off. Among the trays of fruit was a tray of garden picked tomatoes. As a child, my mother would bulk buy seconds tomatoes cheap when they were in season, and turned them into soup and her famous tomato sauce. The house would smell of ripe tomato for days. I know some may gag at the mere idea of it, but even now the smell of cooking tomatoes makes my mouth water.

Well, if she can do it, so can I.

I’d read in a cook book, that a good start to any soup is to sweat onion and garlic in a pan with a little oil. Unfortunately, I don’t really like onion, but I followed the instructions anyway.

It’s the texture I can’t stand… it feels like cellophane wrapped in tinfoil. Argh.

Next I added the tray of chopped tomatoes and stood over it for a moment. Surely that couldn’t be it. I mean, it smelled amazing, but was soup really that simple? I’d never actually made soup before, so I didn’t know. Maybe it needed something else. What else goes with tomato?

I grabbed the oregano and added a nice big pinch. Finding an opened tube of tomato paste, I squeezed a little in, and finished it off with salt and pepper.

Somewhere along the line, I created a masterpiece. Whether it was the freshest of fresh tomatoes or that little bit of oregano, the flavour was deep and moreish.

Finish off with some fresh bread and a little cheese and voila!

Sustainability Test - Tomatoes grown about 600km away in a backyard glasshouse, might have been sprayed once but probably not. Great and tasty.
 Garlic and Onion from a NZ owned supermarket, grown in unknown conditions somewhere in NZ. Can do better.
 Tomato paste from Italy. Bad.
 Salt and Pepper bought awhile back so I have no idea of the brand. Not super.

Anyone have any tips for a budding preserver? How about easy recipes to use up the explosion of food this season? Share your experiences!