August 2009
| 1 | Preserving: 8 jars of sweet zucchini relish |
| 2 |
A trip to
Terling (that's Tarling, darling - sorry, local joke) for geocaching.
Started with a most frustrating "no find" in and around a telephone booth,
where we ended up searching with four other people to no avail. Time later for tomato tidy-up, in the greenhouse & hanging baskets. Harvest: 2 toms, 1 cucumber (7 oz), 7 oz black kale, 11 oz blueberries. |
| 3 |
Just had my best eBay selling weekend, with 11 items sold. I remain
amazed at what people will buy if it's a bargain. Preserving: courgette rice Harvest: 1 courgette (13 oz), 6 toms (5.5 oz) |
| 4 |
Fruit cage repair day. At last I got to the garden centre to buy some
plastic greenhouse shading which Crow & I put all the way around the
bottom of the fruit cage where the net was broken. Don't know how
effective it will be or how long it will last .... Preserving: massive pot of vegetable (mainly courgette) curry Harvest: 1 courgette, 1 cucumber, 1 lonely tomato, salad leaves with basil, summer savory, marjoram & coriander |
| 5 |
The race is now on to complete another waistcoat for Etienne and the first
is too big and now destined for Emile. Harvest: 12 oz courgette, 6 oz toms, 1 cucumber (3.4 oz) |
| 6 |
We've hired a skip to get rid of some garden rubbish including wire etc and
we soon filled it. Have a little attic clear-out, but also unearthed
items from the attic for eBay selling. Harvest: 17 lb greengages, 16 oz courgette, 13 oz toms, salad, basil, marjoram, oregano, summer savory |
| 7 |
Preserving: 8 jars greengage & cinnamon jam Harvest: 1 courgette (25 oz) |
| 8 |
A jar of vodka chillies looks so pretty. I mixed 4 red, 4 yellow, 4
green and 4 purple in a long slim jar. We had to cancel our London trip
(see chicken diary). We were both moping over this so we took to the
road to find 7 geocaches. Preserving: 4 jars greengage dessert, 1 jar vodka chillies Harvest: 7 tomatoes (5-6 oz), 1 cucumber (6.6 oz), 12 chillies, 9 oz blueberries |
| 9 |
Lots of watering, weeding and general TLC for my veggies. Harvest: basil, 4 oz raspberries, 8 courgette (50 oz), 25 oz toms, 28 oz beans, 1 butternut squash (20 oz) |
| 10 | Preserving: 4 jars greengage dessert, 9 jars greengage jam |
| 11 |
Great excitement as we've been out choosing a replacement car. I'll be
sorry to see my bright yellow Seat Ibiza go, but I need an automatic.
We found a smart looking silver Toyota Yaris which we pick up next week. Just went into the net tunnel to water my tomatoes, but couldn't resist potting up 4 more strawberry runners. Preserving: 1 litre ratatouille + some for dinner, 4 litres courgette & mint soup Harvest: 1.25 oz raspberries, 1 cucumber (3.7 oz), 1 courgette (13.4 oz), 1 butternut squash (22.3 oz), 20 oz toms |
| 12 | Harvest: 13 oz beetroot, salad leaves and basil |
| 13 | Harvest: 22 oz toms, 7+ lb greengages, lettuce for mum |
| 14 | Preserving: 7 jars greengage chutney
(12 lb fruit) - recipe 1 Harvest: 34 oz mixed toms (including my first 7 yellow cherry toms) |
| 15 | Managed to give away 6 lb greengages to a
neighbour but she insisted on a swap, so I accepted pears as ours aren't
ready until later. Preserving: 3 jars greengage dessert (4 lb fruit) Harvest: 74 oz toms, yet another 10 lb greengages |
| 16 | Hoorah, I managed to give 6 lb greengages
to my friend Andrea. Preserving: 3 jars+ wine greengage dessert (8 lb fruit) |
| 17 | Preserving: 9 jars greengage &
mulled wine jam (4 lb fruit) Harvest: 2 cucumbers (10 oz) |
| 18 | Wow, Andrea came back for another 6 lb
greengages because they are just so delicious and we've eaten 2 lb fresh
over the last couple of days. Preserving: 3 jars Rosemary passata Harvest: 2 courgette (18 oz), 31 oz beans, 44 oz toms |
| 19 | Harvest: 1 cucumber (7 oz), 53 oz toms, 7 windfall aples & 1 pear |
| 20 | Preserving: 7 jars greengage chutney
(recipe 2), 5 jars greengage chutney (recipe 3) Harvest: 1 cucumber (7 oz), 9 oz toms |
| 21 | Harvest: 56 oz toms |
| 22 | Harvest: 5.2 oz blueberries, 7.3 oz yellow toms, 43 oz other toms |
| 23 | Harvest: 12 oz yellow toms, 1st 5 victoria plums, 1st blackberries (32 oz), salad, basil, summer savory, marjoram, 1 large beetroot |
| 24 | Preserving: 4 jars Basil Passata Harvest: 2 cucumber (16 oz), courgette and squash (99 oz), mixed toms (mostly italian) 118 oz |
| 25 | Before I made some more, I decanted my
blackberry wine mixed last September. Preserving: 2 jars cucumber relish, 3 jars spiced pickled beans, 2 bottles blackberry wine Harvest: 14 oz cherry toms, 2 sweetcorn cobs (1st of the crop) |
| 26 | Preserving: 2 bottles blackberry
wine, 2 litre pot of veg curry ready for the Longfield Triangle (see next
month). Harvest: 30 oz blackberries, 70 oz cooking apples, 9 lb victoria plums (1st of crop) |
| 27 | A marvellous bargain meal at a top local
restaurant - the Camelot at Five Lakes Golf Club. Their credit
crunch offer, ending tomorrow, is a three course meal for 2 with a bottle
of wine for £30. Menu was limited to three choices per course but
the food was superb! We went with two friends who also went home
with 2 lb of my cherry tomatoes. What's in my tomato "mix"? Well, in the large category I've got beefsteak, italian and normal round ones and in the cherry category I've got red, yellow and black. Preserving: 2 large jars pickled plums, 4 lb victoria plums cooked for tomorrow's jam Harvest: 9 lb mixed tomatoes |
| 28 | Started the day by finishing the plum jam,
then turned my hand to passata, then used my best italian tomatoes to do
three trays of sun-dried toms, but in my rush to hurry them along I burnt
half of them. Am I kicking myself hard? Preserving: 7 jars plum jam, 3 trays sun-dried tomatoes, 3 jars cherry tomato passata |
| 29 | I seem to have spent most of the day
labelling and storing all of my new jars of produce and relisting items on
eBay. Preserving: 1 jar Vodka Chillies Harvest: 16 red & 16 yellow chilli peppers, 1 cucumber (8.2 oz), 1 pear, 65 oz victoria plums, 36 oz cherry toms, 47 oz other toms |
| 30 | Wow - a day away from produce and
preserving.... Visiting friends in Great Bradley today and they got a bumper hamper of 2 chutneys, 2 jams, 1 jar pickled melothrie, apple dessert, vodka chillies, sloe gin, 2.5 lb victoria plums, 1.5 lb cherry tomatoes and 12 eggs! I think I'm over compensating because I think it should be our turn to entertain them. |
| 31 | Word of the day: RIPSNORTER - a word from rural America, meaning something violent, extravagant, vigorous or a striking example of its kind. |