DIY Fruit Flavored Vinegar- Think Ahead Handmade Gift Ideas Series
I’m so excited to add another project to our Think Ahead Handmade Gift Ideas Series. This is one of my favorite summer projects that I make every year and give out at Christmas. DIY Fruit Flavored Vinegar! This is the perfect time of year to prep this and stick it away in your handmade gift closet, so don’t delay! Work on it this weekend!
This week I visited my local farmer’s stand and I got a bit choked up. We visit a fabulous, family run, farmer’s stand every summer called Hop On Farms. We started going there when I was pregnant with my daughter who is now 8. The ladies who work there all know us, they express interest in my children, they comment when I visit the farm solo, they smile as my daughter seeks out the biggest and fuzziest Okanangan peaches, they chuckle as I remind my son that we can’t eat the strawberries until they’ve been weighed… going to Hop On Farms is our summer tradition. Hop On closes their doors from October 31st to Easter each year, so in September I always get a bit nostalgic, sadly counting down the days until I’ll have to start buying my produce at the grocery store again.
Every year, as the summer draws to an end, I find myself wanting to preserve the flavors and memories of summer. I always buy peaches, tomatoes and pickling cucumbers in bulk and can them for the winter. Another great way to preserve some of the flavors of the summer is with fruit infused vinegars!
Today I’m going to share with you my “recipe” for how to make fruit flavored vinegar. Seriously guys… this is so easy to make you can hardly even call it a recipe! The fruits that I decided to use for my fruit infused vinegars were strawberries, peaches and italian plums however this recipe could be used making any berries or soft fleshed fruit. Next year I want to try it with cherries!
You can take a peek at my homemade raspberry vinegar here. I love this recipe because it literally takes 2 minutes of “active” time (slicing the fruit) and the vinegar has an incredibly long shelf life (years).
Fruit infused vinegars make great gifts for the foodies on your list!
How To Make Fruit Flavored Vinegar
Ingredients/Materials:
– 3- 1/2 pint mason jars with lids (aka 250 ml mason jars)
-1 litre of white wine vinegar (you’ll want to get a good vinegar for this. No straight white vinegar… save that for cleaning!)
-1 1/2 cups of sliced fruit (1/2 cup for each jar. I made 1 jar of strawberry, 1 jar of peach and 1 jar of plum)
Directions:
Step 1- Wash and slice fruit.
Step 2- Put 1/2 cup of fruit in each jar and top with white wine vinegar
Step 3: Sit to “brew” for at least 2 weeks. After 2 weeks you can strain the fruit out of your vinegar if you would like, or leave the fruit in and strain when serving.
This vinegar is delicious made into homemade vinaigrettes and marinades! Fabulous for foodie gifts!
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Ingredients
- 3- 1/2 pint mason jars with lids aka 250 ml mason jars
- 1 litre of white wine vinegar you'll want to get a good vinegar for this. No straight white vinegar... save that for cleaning!
- 1 1/2 cups of sliced fruit *See notes 1/2 cup for each jar. I made 1 jar of strawberry, 1 jar of peach and 1 jar of plum
Instructions
- Wash and slice fruit
- Put 1/2 cup of fruit in each jar
- Top with white wine vinegar
- Sit to "brew" for at least 2 weeks
- After 2 weeks you can strain the fruit out of your vinegar if you would like, or leave the fruit in and strain when serving.
Notes
Delicious made into homemade vinaigrettes and marinades! Fabulous for foodie gifts!
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Make sure to check out our other Think Ahead Handmade Gift Ideas!
DIY Washi Tape Stickers Decorated Notebook
DIY Lavender Essential Oil Tincture
Tell me… Have you ever made fruit infused vinegars? What are your favorite ways to preserve the flavors of summer? What is your “go to” handmade gift. What handmade gifts would you like us to make for upcoming projects in this series?
Make sure to tag the handmade gifts your working on with #HCFHandmadeGiftClub! We want to see what your working on!
Tamara Maillot Delong says
I make a chive flower infused vinegar and a rhubarb infused vinegar (who doesn’t have rhubarb). The chive flower is great as a drizzle over roasting ham and then keep re-applying through basting. Rhubarb vinegrette is fabulous in salad with a little virgin olive oil, dijon and maple syrup mixed! I never thought to try softer berries like raspberries!
Crystal says
Ooooh! Tamara those sound SO GOOD!!! Now I’m going to have to make chive vinegar and rhubarb vinegar. I always look at those pretty purple chive flowers and think I should do something with them. Do you use them for other things too?
Best Wishes,
Crystal
tamara maillot delong says
I pain-stakenly pull the chive flowers apart and serve them on salad. Actually to be honest, sometimes I am not so picky about about peeling them apart and some people might get a few flowers at a time in their salad ? I love the chive flowers. I hate to waste them. They are so pretty and the vinegrette it makes is beautiful. The rhubarb is pretty too. So functional for eating and looking. It makes great gifts. ? I would attach pictures but I can not seem to figure out how. If I emailed them to you maybe???
Crystal says
Mmmmm. Tamara that sounds so good! Yes I’d love for you to email me pictures! crystal@hellofamilymedia.com.
Best Wishes,
Crystal
Karen says
Do you need to prepare the jars in any way- like boil to sterilize them?
Crystal says
Hi Karen,
Great question. You want to have clean jars, but I don’t worry about sterilizing them. If anything stuck around after a thorough cleaning the vinegar would kill it. 🙂
Thank you for visiting!
Best Wishes,
Crystal
Tammy says
How long do these keep on the shelf? Or do u need to strain for storage? Do they need canned?
Crystal says
Hi Tammy,
The vinegar preserves the fruit so they last a really long time! My sister found a jar she had forgotten about that was a couple of years old. We usually use it within a year though and make a fresh batch the following summer. No canning necessary. If you wanted to you could strain the fruit but we don’t usually.
Best Wishes,
Crystal