362 thrifty days till Christmas

Cranberry's on the Grapevine???! 

Before Christmas I was given a jar of Cranberry and Orange relish by a lovely and very talented lady called Mary who comes along to one of the knit and natter groups I also go to. She had promised me the recipe if I liked the relish, and 1 large packet of cream crackers and a quarter pound of Stilton later the jar was empty and I had made my mind up that it was indeed extremely good relish! 

She e-mailed me the recipe, but as Cranberry's are not something I usually have in...well, I don't think I have ever actually bought a fresh cranberry in my life, I thought I would just pick up a bag as and when I could afford one.

Now this is where a good thrifty grapevine comes into play. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Mary marked "Cranberry relish - URGENT!"

Sainsbury's had a load of fresh cranberries reduced from £4 to 50p!  Now who of you would have been able to resist a reduction like that? 

A quick trip to Sainsbury's, 4 bags of cranberries (that still only came to half the original price of just 1 bag) and everything else I had in, and in less than 1 hour I had 3 jars of ruby red relish and 3 spare bags of cranberries popped in to the freezer to make more relish when I need!

Preserves are like the name suggests a way of preserving a glut of anything, I don't believe in buying expensive fruits and vegetables to make mine, instead relying on a glut on the allotment, or a friends apple tree, or from the hedge rows. Usually the only fruit I will buy are Seville oranges for my marmalade as they only grow in Seville, but with the cranberries I feel I have liberated them from a landfill site because lets face it, who eats cranberries all year round? and we all know how much good food supermarkets throw away.

Mary has kindly let me put the recipe on my recipe page for your use, she points out that it is her adaptation of a recipe by Saint Delia (the boozy bit) so please have a go - if you can get CHEAP cranberries!