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i love that description of preserves! reminds me too of the basement preserve collection in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lives in the Castle ❤️

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Brilliant, Camilla.

I visited Lisbon earlier this year and wow, the sardine shops! Wall-to-wall jewel-coloured stacked tins. Absolutely stunning.

I noticed the theme of preserved foods in The Doll's Alphabet – which I loved. I was gherkin-spotting! It helped set a tone of frugality.

My late mum would rinse then dry out sardine cans on the Aga. Really hard to get rid of the fishy smell. She also had a habit of never checking up on her preserves. An old freezer bled vast quantities of decades old frozen raspberries when we cleared the house, and the demijohns under the kitchen sink were full of mouldy elderflower wine.

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