Friday 3 September 2010

Autumn is on its way

It may sound daft, but as the days are drawing shorter, and the nights are cooling off, I am worrying about the garden. We have so much prep still to do, hornbeams to remove and dispose of, raised veg beds to make, and rearranging to do, that it all seems a bit of a mountain at the moment. Also, one of our raised beds is now empty, and is waiting to be repositioned, so we can't sow anything in there until it's in its new position. So it feels a bit in Limbo.

But we have bought some roof bars for the car, which will help us get the planks we need for the raised beds home from the diy store. We do need a shredder though, so fingers crossed we'll be able to pick one up pretty soon. We'll use it to help us get rid of the flamin hornbeams.

The tomatoes are still ripening, and I mean ALL of the toms, not just the early ones by the kitchen, the tumblers and even the big Freecycyle tomatoes are ripening. Fab.

We harvested all the remaining apples off the tree, and have given some away, and we still have 3 big carrier bags full in the kitchen waiting to be attended to. We got stuck in because the magpies were after them, and woke us up with their noisy chattering outside our bedroom window! We are hoping to get out to the Withy again and collect some blackberries and elderberries, to make bramble jelly and elderberry and apple jelly. So that'll use up some of the apples. More chutneys may be in order as well.

The runner beans are still coming, I pick a few every night and store them in the fridge until there is enough for a meal. The peas are pretty much finished, but they are a must for next year, and in a better position hopefully. The courgettes are mildewed again poor things, so have not produced very much. Better position for these too next year.

The greenhouse plants have ground to a halt it seems, one small cucumber, and several chillis, yet to change colour, but I live in hope.

Not veg garden related, but Hubby and I went wild damson picking last week, and we made Spiced Damson and Apple Cheese, bloomin lovely. We stewed the fruit, twice as much weight of damsons to apples, and sieved the resultant pulp. Then weighed it, and added the same weight of sugar to pulp, and about a teaspoon and a half of allspice. Then boiled it until we got to 105 degrees, and popped it into sterilised jars. I've already tucked into the first jar, and it is delicious. Hopefully we'll go and get some more damsons, and I'll have a go at a jam instead of a cheese. Yum!

Really got the preserving bug now, there are so many things I want to try making, and it's an excellent way of preserving our produce without having to freeze it all.

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