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Given that we can buy any ingredient we desire at any time of year in the UK, be it in or out of season, it is hardly surprising that bottling is not commonplace in most households these days. In Germany, however, it is for many a chosen method of fruit and vegetable preservation, along with jam-making and pickling, despite the (super) markets also offering produce inharmoniously out of season.

We all know that ingredients taste best when they are in season, which is also why fruit and vegetables bottled at their peak are, for me, the best alternatives when the real raw deal isn’t around. It isn’t necessary to preserve food in today’s world like it was in the time of our great-grandmothers, and we at least have the luxury of choice, but there is something immensely satisfying about preserving fruit and vegetables in their entirety, and I find the act of bottling an enjoyable process from start to finish.

Bottling is the real deal. Although deep-freezing might be the quicker method of whole fruit preservation (I do this too), bottling is a choice I am happy to make every time, should circumstances – time and shelf space – allow. Generally once fruit has been frozen it loses much of its structural integrity, and once thawed out it tends to be mushy. I freeze fruit that I want to bake and cook with or use in smoothies, but when I want to serve a whole fruit out of season I turn to the jars on our shelves. I like to use sugar or honey syrups to preserve stone fruit, but pure apple juice works just as well in place of syrup for a healthier alternative.

In times past, whole days, sometimes even weeks, were set aside to bottle gluts of fruit and vegetables, but these days more people bottle for enjoyment and satisfaction than to preserve litres of produce. I often spend just 45 minutes bottling odd jars here and there; this allows room for more variety on our shelves too.

There is something celebratory about opening up a jar of fruit at the table; the anti­cipation and hiss of air as the seal is broken, and of course the contents of the jar, a double gift of fruit and syrup. Bottling fruit may take a little groundwork, but it is paid back tenfold the day you open and share what’s in the jar.