September 2009

1 Did you know?
In the Middle Ages, the word plum was used to describe dried fruits in general. For this reason, Christmas pudding is still also known as plum pudding. When Little Jack Horner pulled a plum from his mouth in the 16th century nursery rhyme, he probably pulled out a raisin, according to Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food. 
2 Preserving:  3 litres of tomato soup, 3 more trays of sun-dried toms
3 Mmmm, my tomato soup is the best I've made to-date.
4 Preserving:  1 large jar of pickled gherkins
6 Caroline & Bex came here for lunch and went away with a car filled to the gunnels with 2 houseplants, 2 chilli plants, tomatoes, eggs, cucumbers, eating apples, cooking apples and pears, but they forgot their tomato soup.
Harvest:  2 cabbages, 4 enormous cucumbers, lots of eating apples, cooking apples & pears
7 Preserving:  9 jars apple chutney
8 Preserving:  2 large jars of sweet pickled pears
9 Harvest:  2 courgettes (5 oz), 12 oz runner beans, 100 oz tomatoes
Preserving:  3 litres ratatouille, 2 litres tomato soup
10 Oh no, Crow's started to harvest the cherry plums,  They're lovely, but there's hundreds (if not thousands) of them and they are so, so difficult to stone.
Harvest:  10 lb 6 oz conference pears, 4 lb cherry plums
Preserving:  2 bottles of blackberry vodka, 5 jars of pears in syrup, 4 lb plums cooked & ready for stoning
12 Crow started the veg garden clear-up, removing spent sweetcorn, beans, courgette, squash and tomato plants.  Then we went off for a bit of geocaching on Mersea island.
Harvest:  bunch of baby carrots, beans, 3 beetroot, 90 oz green and red cherry tomatoes, 18 oz large tomatoes
Preserving:  9 jars of plum, apple & blackberry jam
13 Free eBay listing today, so I'm trying my hand at selling items that we value at more than 99p.
14 Started to clear the greenhouse today removing spent plants and just leaving the few good tomatoes left to see if they will ripen.
Harvest:  2 cucumbers (7.5 oz), 7 gherkins (5 oz), 16 oz tomatoes
15 Preserving:  4 jars of tomato, cucumber & celery passata
16 Harvest:  2 cucumbers (16 oz), 41 oz blackberries, 1 green cabbage, 105 oz cherry plums
Preserving:  7 jars of apple, pear & apricot chutney
17 Met my friend Sandra for lunchtime coffee, after swimming.  Caught up on the gossip and vowed to get together for dinner in November.
Preserving: 7 jars plum & blackberry chutney, 6lb cherry tomatoes frozen in one pound bags.
18 Major preparation for tomorrow's event and major panic when I found my large pasta pan is no good.  had to hotfoot (well, hotcar) it round to friends to borrow an enormous pressure cooker.  That meant I had three very large pans for soup and curry.  Breadmaker on overtime, too.
19 It's Longfield Triangle day - our dusk to dark puzzle treasure hunt in our paddock and woods.  Everyone seemed to have great fun and filled themselves up with hot soup with home-made bread and curry with rice whilst chatting and waiting for the results and awards presentation.  For full details, including event report and photos, see http://pegularity.org.uk/triangle2006
We raised £192 for The Multiple Sclerosis Society.
20 Harvest:  42 oz yellow toms, 41 oz green toms, 3 cucumbers (12 oz), 4 baby courgette (9.75 oz), 39 oz red cherry toms
21 Harvest:  98 oz green tomatoes, 45 oz yellow cherry toms, 19 oz red tomatoes
22 Preserving:  7 jars of bottled pears, 7 lb frozen cherry tomatoes
23 Off to Portugal for a well-earned break, staying with friends at their villa.  One of my most  favourite places, outside of Longfield.
24 Three warm days of swimming, reading, chatting ...
25 ... visiting wonderful restaurants (especially today, as it's my birthday!) ...
26 ... relaxing (geocaching for Crow) and generally having a wonderful time.
27 Back from Portugal  :-(  to a wonderfully re-varnished kitchen (it's full of pine)  :-))
28 While we were away, Ron was chicken sitting and varnishing everything Pine in our kitchen and breakfast room.  The house is a tip, with half of the kitchen in the dining room, but I've decided that I want clear worktops, only having out things which are used every day.  That means a real kitchen clearout, getting into all of the cupboards to make room for items normally strewn over the worktops.   This will take some time and I can't start it just yet as there is preserving, preserving & preserving still to do.
Preserving:  7 jars green tomato chutney
Harvest: 42 oz blackberries
29 Preserving:  11 jars apple & blackberry jam
Harvest:  1 beetroot (6 oz), 4 cucumber (23 oz), salad with mizuna
30 Harvest:  Loadsa potatoes, 1 cucumber (3.9 oz)