Preserving

This weekend, Toño and I did not only reap the fruits of life...



... but also tried to preserve them. My brother has loads of eggplants...



and who is more experienced in handling fruits of this dimension than Toño (and I ;).



After a proper rub, the eggplants were chopped, blanched and filled into meticulously prepared glasses.



The glasses went straight into my mother's good old sterilizer.



After putting the glasses up to ¾ of their height into cold water, the lid and thermometer were mounted and the heat turned on for an hour.



Today, they will get their second hourly session (only tomatoes and zucchinis are already well sterilized after one).

We were well prepared for this. We've bought a book about preserving and consulted loads of experienced women, such as my mother, my sisters, Anigna, Tina and Christine. All these experiences and our passion went into these glasses.

While the glasses were in the hot water, we went to the elderberry tree.



We spare you the tedious part were we had to get the berries of the panicles, but only the good ones (think Cinderella without pigeons). After this experience however, cooking the jam was piece of cake.



Now, we are definitely prepared for winter.