This weekend, I ticked another item on my want-to-do list. A friend had given me a small bag of cherry tomatoes she had grown so that I could have a go at bottling them as she does. I had planted loads of tomato plants this year so that we could have a surplus and freeze some and bottle some for the winter. Unfortunately, the tomato plants didn't cooperate and I had about 2lbs of tomatoes from 10 plants. I've no idea what went wrong but I'll give it another go next year.

My friend gave me these tomatoes but the trouble was that they tasted too wonderful and I only had enough left to fill one jar and not the two I'd hoped for. I also did one jar of stewed apple because I was running out of weekend and oomph. Hopefully I'll manage some more apple next weekend as I still have some windfalls to use up. I was given another bag of them yay! It was a real job to get the apple jar out of the saucepan (water bath) without scalding myself as it only took 20 minutes to the tomato jar's 40. I have to say that the two jars smile at me every time I walk past them on the side in the kitchen. And I loved hearing the pop as the lid sealed. I really ought to put them in the cupboard soon. If I can do this more, it will help just a little bit with the pressure on freezer space.

This winter, I will keep a cardboard box for a collection of jars with pop lids that are a bit smaller in height as they will be easier to fit in a saucepan. My husband is laughing at me but I feel so pleased with these two jars and with the butter I made.