Pesach productions

From the outside, it's easy to see how preparing for Pesach might seem like enslavment - ironic really for the festival of freedom! Serious amounts of cleaning are often par for the course, and cooking like we might never eat again as friends and family descend for the seder meal.
Passover is one of those things everyone does a little bit differently, and as a couple Gary and I have brought together different traditions and learning and have become a bit better at 'doing' Pesach each year. This year posed new challenges in our new place - a very small kitchen for one - but new opportunities too - such as a garden in which to store things! Yesterday we collected our crates of Pesach crockery and cutlery from my grandpa's garage, and it's all waiting to be unpacked when we've finished cleaning the kitchen out (nearly there!). This amount of cleaning and upheaval seems a little O.T.T and obsessive to many, but I've come to really look forward to it! The cleaning isn't enslavement, but a real opportunity to spring clean and discover grime I never would have noticed otherwise! Of course the actual hunting for chametz has it's own spiritual dimensions too but more of that closer to the time!
This year we're trying something new. Normally we have a mad rushed 2 days before Pesach as we hurredly try to clean everything, swap utensils over AND cook for sedarim. Arguments ensue, and everyone is stressed until the moment the festival begins and we can relax! So this year, our preparation has begun more than two whole weeks before the festival! Why would I want to eat pesadich (kosher for passover food) for so long?
Well first of all it always seems like such a waste of effort to do all this cleaning and changing over only to use things for a week and then go back to normal, especially where my grandmothers beautiful silverware is involved! But we're also hoping that this long run up will make Pesach cheaper, healthier and more enjoyable. Pesach has become an industry of pre-made products, trying to make life easier for the busy modern family, but creating an expensive, unhealthy culture of packaged cakes, sugary sauces, and frozen homogenated potatoes (though I was most shocked this morning to spot tinned potatoes!!!)

So our aim is to cut back on all these products, and focus on making our own chutneys and jams (which need a few weeks to prep properly) eating good simple fresh foods, and thus saving our pockets, our wastelines, and all the packaging these things invariably come with. I'll try and share a few of my favourite Pesach recipes over these two weeks, and some of our experiments, as we try to liberate ourselves from processed products and enjoy our freedom in a way we never even considered before!