September 2007

1	Veggie garden workover today.  Tending, weeding and digging out the brussel sprouts and cauliflower decimated by caterpillars.  Hopefully some winter planting in this spot tomorrow. A post Cloverleaf get-together this evening.  A meal for ten of us at The Timbers, just outside Braintree.  Lovely surroundings and meal, although the staff seemed a little disorganised.
2	A last gasp at sowing: salad leaves, polycress, raab, beetroot & spinach in the veggie garden where I removed the sprouts & broccoli. Harvest:  basil, beetroot, chard, 3 lb courgette, spinach, yellow & red tomatoes. In the kitchen: 6 jars of apple & blackberry chutney.
3	A big tunnel weeding session and more distress at the mole damage.  Decided to harvest my shallots as I don't think they will grow any bigger as all of the foliage has gone.  Sadly, it's been far too wet, with far too little sun for good shallots and onions. Harvest: 2 cooking apples, 1 cox apple, 6 cherry tomatoes, asparagus peas, 18 melothrie, 3 small courgettes. In the kitchen:  a big pot of courgette rice yielding 5 double portions for the freezer.
4	More weeding, this time in the orchard.  Crow strimmed in there a few days ago, so it was my turn to finish off by weeding around the new fruit trees.  Been out and bought a solar powered sonic mole repeller and put it in the net tunnel but I didn't read the box properly and I really need two to cover the full tunnel area. Harvest:  9 eating apples, 3 cherry & 4 big red tomatoes. In the kitchen:  a big pot of courgette and apple soup yielding 4 litres, 3 litres for the freezer.
5	A visit to the gym with Sandra.  I always thought I didn't really like the gym, preferring to be outside for my exercise but I've not been to this one, so I thought I'd have a look at all of the latest kit and it was worth the trip!  Air conditioned (previous gyms I've been to have been far too hot), full of fabulous machines including bikes with full seats (so you don't get a sore whatsit) and a beautiful swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room........  Followed by a skinny latte and a good girlie gossip.  I really enjoyed myself and I'm considering whether I have enough motivation to go three times a week to justify a membership.
6	A strange day outside, very warm but very cloudy & dull, which seemed a bit depressing.  So I had an indoor day.  I cooked a big dish of zucchini carrot kugel - enough for eight, so six portions frozen.  A blanching & freezing of nine portions of beans and 6lb of apple & sultana chutney. Harvest: one large juicy tomato and one melon (oops!).  I was trying to support it and it came off in my hand.  Now need to discover the best way to ripen it indoors.
7	Watering!  Only the second time this year and I have to say that I have appreciated not having to water every other day, like last year.  However, I'm not sure it makes up for the lack of success with onions, shallots and outdoor tomatoes & peppers.  And I don't know yet the effect on my sweet potatoes and jerusalem artichokes both of which haven't flowered yet. Harvest: 2 sweetcorn cobs, tomatoes, runner beans.
8	Sadly, one of yesterday's sweetcorn cobs was inedible.  I think I picked it too early in my enthusiasm to eat it.  Still, Aggie & Tat enjoyed it very much!! My fig plant, which lives in the conservatory is sporting it's first ever fig.  Just the one, I'm afraid, but that's one fruit more than the olive plant. Harvest: rhubarb, apples (a mixture of cooking, eating and another cox), first 2 pears.
9	Decided to pick all of the remaining blueberries before they fall off the bush and got a haul that would cost at least £15 in the supermarket. At last, the back of the fair isle waistcoat I'm making is finished.  It's slow work but I think it's worth it..... the result is quite stunning --> Harvest: 21 oz tomatoes, 23 oz blueberries, 27 oz courgette, eating apple.
10	A good session in the garden.  I cleared out two courgette pots and two beetroot pots. I removed another trugful of tomato foliage from the greenhouse.  My outdoor tomato hanging basket stand has been cosseted by the stables, which means it only gets morning sun but it is protected overnight.  Anyway, I've taken a chance and relocated it into the net tunnel.  It will get more daytime sun, but may get cooler overnight.  Crow harvested potatoes for me (the ground was too hard for me to dig!) whilst I gathered up all of the onions in the tunnel. We got 23lb of  white skinned Valor potatoes and  18lb of red skinned Sarpo Mira - not a bad haul. Other harvest:  beetroot, 4 lb cooking apples, 10 oz tomatoes, 3.5 oz asparagus peas, 32 oz courgette, coriander, basil. In the kitchen:  10 lb of Spiced Apple & Walnut Chutney.
11	I am saddened to hear of the untimely death of Anita Roddick, quite a marvellous lady. Bit of a cooking day as I'm still trying to convert courgettes into freezer meals.  Today's efforts were a double dose of courgette & potato curry and an enormous tray of zucchini sausage bake, as well as cooking dinner of course, exercising and tending the chicks and the garden. Harvest: 12 oz tomatoes, chard for the chicks.
12	Another trip to the gym, with Crow in tow too.  This time I had a session in the gym, followed by a swim, then relaxing in the jacuzzi and steam room.  Then, on to Mum-in-laws for lunch and back to pickle my melothrie gherkins and prepare blueberries and blackberries for freezing. Harvest: blackberries, runner beans, tomatoes, gherkins.
13	An experiment - two large jars of pickled runner beans.  Hopefully a different way to enjoy them. It's mainly harvesting in the garden now.  As well as a fridge full of never ending courgettes, I'm now struggling to get all of the tomatoes in there...... Three more double portions of stewed apple & blackberry deposited in the freezer - and that's getting very full now too! Harvest:  26 oz tomatoes, 4 oz raspberries, 8 oz courgette, my first lovely 10 oz turnip from the tunnel (plus three others from veg garden, but not in good condition), basil, spinach, chard, apples.
14	Bit of a lazy day; a walk, pampering at the hairdressers, read my book, cooked dinner, some knitting and computing. Harvest:  3 tomatoes & my first green pepper.  The latter was an accident as a very large pepper plant toppled over in the potting shed and this pepper dropped off when I was attempting the rescue.
15	We had a wonderful day out today, visiting friends for lunch.  The weather was so good we spent all day out in the garden and had barbequed prawns and salmon with all the trimmings.  We swapped chutney - it will be good to taste someone else's brew. Harvest: 16 oz tomatoes, 20 oz courgette.
16	After my fence mending effort (see chicken diary), a bumper harvest: 9 oz courgette, 53 oz tomatoes, 20 oz apples, 4 oz beans & basil.  Then Crow brought me 33 oz blackberries and 16 lb (yes, pounds) of cherry plums.  I feel a week of cooking and preserving coming up, as we've still got masses of pears, apples, plums and quite a few tomatoes and runner beans, to pick. Preserving: plum & blackberry chutney.
17	Joined the gym this morning.  So some serious effort to get fitter starting right now..... Then a trip to B&Q for paint to freshen up our main bedroom.  We've got a new grey carpet being fitted on Friday, so picked a pale lilac emulsion called serenity (we don't do wallpaper). Harvest: 23 oz blackberries. Preserving: plum & blackberry jam.
18	Harvest: 4 oz green pepper, 15 oz beetroot, 21 oz courgette, 54 oz tomatoes, 73 oz apples, 81 oz pears. Cooking & freezing:  2 litres of courgette soup, stewed plum & apple x 5, 1 litre of tomato pasta sauce. Preserving: 2 jars of pickled plums.
19	After the gym......  I popped into the former workplace to see old colleagues, deliver produce and collect much needed empty jars. Cooking & freezing:  1.5 litres of courgette/carrot/mint soup, 1 litre of tomato/beetroot pasta sauce, 1 litre of tomato/mushroom pasta sauce, beans x 3. Harvest: 8 oz courgette, 22 oz dwarf beans.
20	Had my gym induction this morning, so I've now got a training program set up which gives me a target for each session. Preserving: 2 jars of pickled pears, 6 jars of apple/pear/date/apricot chutney.
21	New bedroom carpet laid today, so most of the day was lost to dismantling and moving furniture, cleaning and some reassembly. Harvest: 5 lb pears, 5 lb apples, 8 lb cherry plums. Preserving:  stewed pears x 4 and cinnamon apple x 6.
22	Oops - now that the new carpet is laid, I think the lilac emulsion clashes with it.  Although  the carpet was termed "grey" it's really light fawn, fawn and grey.  So, I had to go back to B&Q and swap serenity for soft coffee. Preserving:  2 jars of spiced pickled pears.
23	Our first taste of home grown melon - special!
24	Crow had his gym induction this morning while I did my new workout, then some swimming.  I'm aiming to go three times a week, but I'll probably stop mentioning it now, for fear of getting just too boring.
25	My 50th birthday and phew!  it's 30C here in Portugal.  Crow & I had a long hot walk & I swam 60 lengths of the 9 metre pool.  I was quite spoilt with chicken gifts from our hosts, a birthday cake with sparklers, then a lovely meal out.  Angie had obviously told the restaurant it was a birthday celebration so they had decorated the table with Happy Birthday confetti and my desert arrived with another sparkler in it - nice touches!
26	Chilling out, knitting, reading and swimming (60 lengths again).  And another fabulous meal out at a very traditional Portuguese restaurant with a beautiful view of the surrounding hills.
27	Upped the swim to 80 lengths.  Got to combat all of this wonderful food.  Took Crow down to Faro beach to see if it was better for him to run in the sea breeze.  Don't think he liked the sand though - very tough work!
28	A bit cooler today, so Crow managed a run on very challenging terrain, but I opted for a short walk & 100 length swim, which works out at about 700 metres.  A meal at the villa before our flight back to England.  Sad to leave our hosts and this lovely place, but missing my chicks.....
29	Today's main task has been putting all the rooms back as they should be now that the bedroom is finished and putting all of the holiday bits away.  PLUS, picking up new chicks......... Harvest:  one green pepper, 10 tomatoes, 60 oz cherry plums,  5 lb apples, 11 lb pears.
30	Back to glooping with 10 lb of plum & pear pickle. Harvest: mega amounts of tomatoes (21 oz chicky tomatoes, 25 oz yellow cherry tomatoes, 77 oz red tomatoes, 24 oz to ripen), over 6 lb (104 oz to be precise) cherry plums.