Preserving and Pickling with Relish

It's all well and good having a vegetable garden at home and enjoying fresh produce, but what happens when, despite best plans, there's just too many tomatoes and courgettes (etc) to deal with? and friends and neighbours are generously trying to give you their surplus too?

Some simple preserving skills, techniques and recipes are enough to turn today's surplus into a pantry filled with colourful and tasty to enjoy tomorrow.

Chef Chris Fortune was joined by about a dozen people this weekend to learn some preserving skills in a practical hands-on session.

With surplus produce donated by Marlborough Vintners' Hotel, Seresin Estate, and brought along by participants themselves, Chris lead the group though a range of recipes to produce dozens and dozens of jars of pickles, picallilli, chutneys and relishes. Many of these will be donated to Rapaura School for sale at their annual Country Harvest Fair.

With these simple skills and techniques, not only can you learn to manage the late summer surplus without waste, but it also opens up the opportunity to deliberately grow a surplus, so you can enjoy your own graden's bounty well after the winter sets in.

Email us and we'll be happy to provide recipes.