Now is the time of year when rhubarb is readily available. Why not get the preserving pan out, celebrate this most English of vegetables, and try some of the following recipes:

As the pickle and preserve website has been going for over a year now I thought it would be interesting to see what the most popular recipes have been amongst visitors.

So here goes the top five in ascending order:

When making chutney it is often difficult to tell when it is thick enough to start potting in sterilised jars.

A good chutney should have spent time slowly simmering until all the ingredients are well cooked and the mixture is smooth. It's important not to simmer it too fast and to stir it regularly so avoid it sticking on the bottom of the preserving pan. This will allow the sugar to darken and the flavours combine.
A useful tip for judging when the chutney has reduced to a thickness suitable for potting is to draw a wooden spoon across the base of the preserving pan. If liquid quickly fills the gap then the chutney could do with some more simmering.
The Green Tomato Chutney in the above photo has reached the correct consistency and is ready for potting.
Always remember to let chutney mature for several months to allow the combination of flavours to develop.

Some time ago when in Manchester I was tempted into buying a large box of fresh mangoes. I paid  just £3 for a beautifully packaged box of seven small ripe mangoes, complete with tissue paper wrapping and tinsel decoration. When I got home I froze them planning to make mango chutney.

Mango chutney is not something I've tried to make before, although we consume enough of it as we tend to have a curry night every few weeks.
There's a good selection of recipes on the internet, including a sweet version with raisins on bestrecipes.com.au, and one with lots of chillies at top-indian-recipes.com. One problem I ran into, which also happened when looking for lime pickle recipes, was that the Indian use of the word chutney tends to refer to preparations of fresh ingredients rather than a method of preserving.

I've been inspired to make a Chutney for next Christmas, having been given several jars of 'Christmas Chutney' this year. While in some respects obviously a marketing ploy, it got me thinking about what sort of chutney would have the required festive feel.

Delia has a Christmas Chutney which includes lots of dried fruit and  Mary Berry has one made from peppers and aubergines. The general idea seems to concoct something a bit richer than usual, maybe containing fruit associated with Christmas, which also goes well with cold meat and cheese (most chutneys do...)

Green Tomato Chutney is one of those things that you almost hope you don't have to make (apart from that it's delicious). It would be so much nicer to eat all the tomatoes in the red and juicy state that they should be, however the recent wet summers mean that there are often green tomatoes left at the end of the season. This is an ideal way to use them up.
I've never seen green tomatoes for sale anywhere, although I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them at some larger farmers markets. The ones I used were the last stragglers from the greenhouse, there were a few orange and red ones in there as well.

Nigel Slater has written a nice article about green tomatoes, which includes another recipe.

If, like me, you've been wondering what to do with all that left over pumpkin, apart from make pie and soup, then this spicy winter chutney might be the answer. Our lantern was made early this year, in preparation for a weekend away, so the rest of the afternoon was spent putting the scrapings to good use.

I adapted the pumpkin chutney recipe on the lovely mytinyplot blog, increasing the amount of ginger and adding some apricots for extra fruitiness.

We're occasional Sunday morning visitors to a local car boot sale, we can't go that often because we end up buying too much stuff.
One of the stalls which is worth visiting sells vast quantities of cheap fruit and veg, there's never much choice and it has to be eaten quickly, but it's a good place to pick up a bargain. This weeks haul was 15 bananas for a pound and a crate of limes for £1.50 (45 - I counted them).

This lime chutney was an obvious choice, although I think we probably eat more of the Indian style lime pickle (oil based) than this vinegar based preserve, this will add an extra dimension to cheese and pickle sandwiches of the future.

This was a nice quick easy recipe to make to use up the last of the gooseberries.
I only made about half of quantity of the recipe, as the gooseberries in the garden were rapidly being eaten by wasps, and I'd used up a lot making a delicious summer pudding using only gooseberries - highly recommended, if a bit pale looking.

This meant it was quite a quick process as it cut down the time consuming job of topping and tailing the gooseberries. The recipe also appealed as I thought it would be nice to try a chutney without all the additions such as raisins, dates, chilli etc.

As part of using up the ongoing glut of rhubarb in the garden, and having already made rhubarb and ginger jam, chutney was next on the list. I never usually make chutney at this time of year, it tends to be the sort of thing I submit vegetables to at the end of their life, such as green tomatoes, huge marrows and windfall apples. It seems slightly unfair on the excited spring shoots to confine them to several hours of simmering in vinegar, but we do get through a lot of chutney over the year and a new flavour will be eagerly looked forward to when it's ready.

The recipe I used was adapted from the one at the thefoody.com, as recommended on the grow your own forums.