A young relative starts off boldly with the assertion that a "warm and wet September has ensured a good harvest" (of her kind of produce anyway). "And what to do with the glut?" she asks. And then answers comprehensively. Late-fruiting raspberries (Autumn Bliss variety) can be bagged and frozen, as can all varieties of beans. Apples and pears are eaten straight from the tree, particularly good after the evening meal, when they are beautifully cool and crunchy. And even more appreciated when you read about the excessive pesticide levels in commercially produced fruit. But you can only eat and freeze a certain amount - after that it's time for jams and pickles. The young couple whose garden has been particularly fertile this year found a treasure trove in Oded Schwartz's book Pre- serving. Not only does Mr Schwartz give 150 recipes for sweet and savoury preserves, drawn from cuisines around the world, he also devotes whole sections to preserving equipment and techniques, and to the range of preserves that can be made, listed under Tomatoes, the Pepper family, the Onion family, the Squash family, Root Vegetables, Meat, Fish and Seafood, Citrus fruit, Orchard fruit, Soft fruit and Exotic fruit. He deals with equipment, containers, hygiene and safety, filling and sealing, and heat processing. Once the basic jams, curds and butters have been mastered, and new combinations tried out (green tomato and orange jam, kiwi fruit and red pepper pickle), you can move on to candying and crystallising, drying meat, curing ham, smoking fish and curing sausages. (Smoking fish is maybe as far as most of us would get - ie smoking salmon caught in the rivers and lakes by people you know, or perhaps by yourself).
This is quite a scientific work; a chart is provided to determine which methods of preserving are best suited to individual fruit and vegetables; it also indicates the pectin content and acidity levels of fruit. There is even a section on oven-drying fruit and herbs, though you need to know your oven well for this - our young preservers got up one morning to an oven full of carbonised Victoria plums rather than the four pounds of succulent prunes they had hoped for. The practical Mr Schwartz ends the book by saying that "as so many factors affect the preserving process, it is possible that the end-product may not look, smell or taste as you expected." He provides a list of the most common problems encountered during preserving, with clear guidelines on when a product should not be eaten. Published by Dorling Kindersley, 1996, and carrying the Books for Cooks seal of approval.