More Preserves from Nashtown Castle

Continuing the family tradition of preserving our own home grown heritage vegetables and preserving locally foraged fruit when there is a surplus, allows us to enjoy them all year round. Nashtown Castle Preserves and Pickles are now available in Glasrai & Goodies in Gowran, County Kilkenny and Phelans' Vegetable Shop in Ormond Street, Kilkenny.

Nashtown Castle pickles, jellies and chutneys ready for sale

Nashtown Castle Wild Crab Apple Jelly is created with foraged wild crab apples growing in the local wild hedgerows. 2012 was a bad year for apples, we found one special wild tree that yielded all the crab apples that were required.

Nashtown Castle Sloe & Crab Apple Jelly Not only was 2012 a bad year for apples, it was also a poor year for sloes. However, some careful sleuthing in the nearby woods located enough to make this special jelly. We had to watch and wait until the first frosts came along before we picked them, to allow the sloes to develop a little sweetness. 

Nashtown Castle Pickled Red Cabbage We grow our own red cabbage, it only travels a few yards from where it grows, to the pickling bowl in the kitchen. A stunningly beautiful vegetable, when cut in half, it always seems a shame to slice it up. We love to eat it raw, freshly grated in a coleslaw. We preserve it by pickling it, so we can continue to eat it out of season.

Nashtown Castle Apple & Lavender Jelly One of the greatest pleasures of gardening is picking your own home grown lavender, while the perfume swirls around. The lavender bags are emptied every year, refilled and replaced around the house to deter moths. The remaining lavender is infused to make a herbal tea and it is that juice that is added to this beautiful clear jelly. Having very few apples this year, we raided our neighbour's neglected old orchard, full of old, flavorsome varieties of apples to produce this jelly.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com