Megan Palmer

We have three whisks in our kitchen and the one that gets the least use is the balloon whisk.

We also own a rotary egg beater and a spiral whisk.

All three were op shop finds and the spiral whisk gets the most use.

It is guaranteed to produce a lump free roux, gravy, batter and will whisk eggs well for omelettes but if I need to beat egg whites the rotary egg beater is quicker.

The ballon whisk is one with some sort of sealant in the handle keeping the wires in place.

The rotary egg beater is definitely a buy for life, my 90 year old mother has her one from my childhood.

Both the other whisks will likely outlive me too.

Is it too late to try to find some pencil thick branches that can be grafted onto another tree in spring?

They can be grafted onto a plum or peach, take lots of cuttings. I am an inexperienced grafter but get a one in six success rate on the majority of the grafts I’ve done.

Or scrabble around the base of the tree for any of last seasons windfalls and plant the stones?

The stone grown trees may not be identical but will certainly be very close to the parent and may even be more delicious.

And here in NZ they are called slaters

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/tools-and-resources/identification/what-is-this-bug/slaters

Thekla McDaniels wrote:I love peaches.  More than peaches, I love apricots, and even more than apricots, I love nectarines.

I love eating them all equally but for preserving, my favourite is the variety of peach known as golden queen in NZ.

It has a firm texture when just ripe but softer flesh when over ripe, is a clingstone and tastes really good when bottled and is great for chutneys. The skin only has a light fuzz.

For bottling, the black boy peach aka peche de vignes aka blood peach is superb, slightly tart even when fully ripe. An added bonus is that it’s a free stone.

White peaches are best off the tree for me, they seem to taste too bland when bottled and not enough texture for chutneys.

I have planted 5 apricots, 6 peaches and 2 nectarines at the community garden where I have a plot and still have countless seedlings in pots and still can’t resist sowing the stones every time I eat a good flavoured stone fruit.

Our region is renowned for growing stone fruit although our community garden site is less than ideal, our trees still produce enough for eating if not preserving.

Timothy Norton wrote:Is there something special about donut peaches?

I have seen a few cultivars that make flat shaped peaches and those peaches are toted as being some of the sweetest fruit. Is there something to it?

Last week, a friend gave me some locally grown donut peaches that I will save the stones and try to grow out.

I've already grown at least 5 different varieties of peaches from stones so hopefully can report back in 3-4 years whether the stone grown peaches are as sweet as the ones I've been given.

They are white fleshed and very early so may struggle with frosts and late spring snow that we get.

The mature peach trees at the community garden often don't produce a crop as our site is in a gorge that acts like a wind tunnel.

And yes, they are very sweet.

Anne Miller wrote:Out of curiosity is water bath the same as double boiler method?

I am unfamiliar with the double boiler method.

Water bathing is placing the jars of preserves in a pan of water up to the shoulders and/or totally immersing the jars and boiling for the prescribed time according to the type of preserve.

I usually place a tea towel on the bottom of the pan so the jars are not directly touching the base of the pan.

The timing depends on whether the fruit/vegetables are blanched/raw packed and I use the HMSO Home preservation of fruit and vegetables for timing guidelines.

Carla Burke wrote:Well, it's John's night, it's 4:25, and the chicken John planned on is still half frozen. I'm not sure what he's going to do, now.

Have tried the trick of setting your frozen food on a cast iron griddle or pot - it defrosts everything really quickly.


Admittedly not tried it with a whole chicken, only portions.

If I forget to take my lunch out of the freezer the night before, I place the frozen container of food inside a casserole pot as soon as I wake up, take to work and leave on the bench in the office.

By lunchtime it’s totally defrosted.

Jay Girardot wrote:Slightly off topic, but does anyone know of a good method to can alfredo sauce?

Although I’ve not tried it, I expect that this sauce could be safely water bathed, however the sauce may separate after it’s been water bathed unless you are using a roux based method to make it.

It might be worth experimenting with water bathing a single jar to test how it works out.

I know of several people who have successfully water bathed dairy products like cream cheese so the sauce ought to be fine.

Has anyone water bathed their Alfredo sauce and can chime in here?

We had another tray bake with potato, purple and orange sweet potato, carrots, beetroot and chicken portions marinated in crushed new season garlic, lots of ground black pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Served with homegrown asparagus.

Best