July goings on.

July has been a busy month so far. 


Inspired by this book:

I thought I'd have a go at bottling (or 'canning' in America) gooseberries. I bought some from a PYO farm I came across to eke out the ones I grew myself.

I used my new preserving pan to sterilise the jars and lids, with a tea towel folded at the bottom as instructed. 

Topping and tailing the gooseberries was rather tedious, but necessary. Miss Read, in her Fairacre series of books, says she uses a pair of nail scissors but I prefer my knife.

I packed each jar with fruit then added hot syrup (Just sugar and water). I screwed on the lids and slightly loosened them, then lowered them into the hot water and brought the water to 88 degrees Celsius for the amount of time it said (20 mins I think - it varies, depending on the fruit used).

The finished result. Now that the fruit has softened there is loads of room left in the jars!

 I was amazed at how the jar lids dimpled down, indicating a vacuum has formed. When you think about it this is just the same process as tinned fruit that you buy in the shop. 


I'm very excited about all this! I love seeing the pictures of Amish cupboards filled with jars of produce, and I love the thought of preserving food without needing a freezer. I've bought some smaller Kilner jars to preserve rhubarb, chopped peaches and chopped pears. I would like to preserve vegetables, soups and stews this way too but, due to low acid content and the danger of botulism therefore, I would need to get a special canning pressure cooker for these.


This month in the veggie garden, after weeks of rain:


First potatoes dug up.

Courgettes (zucchini) are forming. Had to pick these a bit smaller than usual due to slugs nibbling the skins off!

My one remaining Pumpkin plant is now flowering. It always amazes me just how big Squash flowers are! I caught this one in the morning; by midday it had curled up again.

The mint plants, which grow wherever the mower can't reach, are also coming into flower. The bees LOVE them!

And finally my 3 'helpers'....


Bramble,

Luna,

and Flopsy.

What have you been up to this month?

Veggies, water and washing

Some piccies from my garden today...

Busy washing day! Boil washed my un-paper towels, then hot washed towels, hand washed 3 things and ordinary washed the rest - 3 linen lines worth. I love to see washing blowing in the wind. It connects me with all the women all over the world, all through the past, who have cared for their families by washing their clothes.

I have two water butts but they have yet to be connected to the drain pipes. Still, I leave the lids off to collect what they can and......

.... I leave all this out to collect more rain then pour them into the water butts. This has really transformed my attitude to rainy days from gloom to excitement. I love harvesting the rain God sends!

The St. John's Wort is living up to its name by blooming in time for St. John's day. (June 24th) Picture is slightly blurry, sorry.

Mint grows wherever the lawnmower can't reach.

The potatoes are flourishing - looking forward to the first dig!

By contrast the beans are really struggling. This is the second sowing, 24 bean seeds each time, and only 3 have made it. 

The strawberries are beginning to ripen, a few at a time; not enough for a bowlful yet.

Apples are swelling on my new Jonagold tree.

The onions are coming along nicely - apart from the one I accidentally chopped with the hoe. Oops!

The courgettes have survived the slug attack....

..... but this is the only one of 3 pumpkin plants to survive the chomping molluscs.

The gooseberries are almost ready to pick!




And finally, two nosey pets who just had to come and have a look....

Luna, our little girl cat....

...and Flopsy, peeking coyly over his shoulder.


Hope you've had a good day too!  x x

Some Piccies for May

After weeks of almost constant rain we've finally had some sunny times - between showers. Took the camera out yesterday in the back garden and thought I'd share the piccies with you.

Bluebells - the very epitome of England in May.

The gooseberry bush is showing signs of the beginnings of berries forming - an amazing feat since Bramble (my cat) keeps catching the Bumble bees that visit here.

Solomon's Seal. Look how the raindrops stay on the leaves, making little beads. I am always astonished at how fast this plant grows each year! Some years it gets completely eaten by grey caterpillars from an insect which only feeds on Solomon's Seal.

Jack-by-the-hedge (or Jack-by-the-compost-bin!), a wild flower which has decided to make it's home here.

Beautiful, beautiful apple blossom from the Jonagold tree I planted this year. Will they make apples this first time? No idea - we'll have to wait and see. The label said it 'probably' doesn't need another tree nearby to pollinate - probably??!!

The onion sets have shot up this last week.

The 'darling buds of May'. Hopefully they'll open out this week, as the nearby hedgerow ones have.

White dead nettles and stinging nettles. I allow some to grow for the butterflies but have to be careful not to let them overtake the garden.

Unfurling fiddle heads of Ferns - now there's poetic!

And finally some pics of the beautiful animals whose lives I am privileged to share. This is Bramble, probably looking for more Bumble bees to catch!

Luna, Bramble's sister, investigates the pond.

Can you see who's hiding here?

Yes, it's Flopsy the bunny!

Hope you enjoyed my May photo album! Blessings  x x

Roots and Rhizomes!

Roots and rhizomes? Sounds like something Trumpkin would say, in 'Prince Caspian'!

A week or so ago, when the weather here turned quite Spring-like, I decided that not only would I dig over my usual veggie-patch but would also extend it. This meant moving a lot of logs (left over from when our silver birch tree suddenly died), lifting some broken concrete slabs which marked the border of the current veggie patch, and digging up a LOT of roots and rhizomes from the white dead-nettles, stinging nettles, lemon balm, ivy and brambles that had been growing in happy abundance there. I moved the lemon balm to another part of the garden, but the rest went in the brown wheelie bin to be taken away to be composted.

Of course, a certain lop-eared Bunny couldn't resist getting in on the act. He enjoyed munching the roots and helping to dig.

Just then, my beautiful, beautiful Daughter arrived home from school and, to my joy, decided to don her wellies and join in!

This was also a momentous day for our two rescue cats, Bramble and Luna, as it was their first day outside. True to form Luna (the female) very quickly felt at ease and disappeared over the fence to explore further, whereas Bramble (her brother) was much more cautious. Here he is, shinning up a fence....

.... and perching, rather uncomfortably, on top.

By the way, since these piccies were taken Bramble has not dared to venture this far again, preferring instead to hunt for such dangerous prey as dead twigs, which he likes to bring in through the catflap and chew to bits in the dining room.

Some signs of Spring on the way:

rhubarb appearing...

... and daffodils (or maybe narcissi) waiting to burst forth.



Since these piccies were taken the weather has not been so kind. Rain (which, admittedly, we badly need in this part of England if we are to avoid a drought later in the year) and cold temperatures have prevented further progress. Having all the windows and front door replaced with double-glazed versions, washing curtains, replacing old net curtains and worn out curtain rails, and searching for new curtains for awkward sized windows have kept me pretty busy too!

A day out at Gressenhall

Had a BRILLIANT day out last week with my lovely Mum at Gressenhall museum. We both love this place but, as usual, we ran out of time to see all the bits we’d planned to – which gives us a good excuse to go again  :-D

My favourite part is Cherry Tree Cottage and garden. This is a long bungalow built originally in the 19^th century as part of the workhouse, for housing elderly couples, but now furnished as a 1930s farm worker’s family home. It has a scullery (with mangle, washboard etc), a bedroom (with life sized bed-ridden Granny under the patchwork coverlet), living room/kitchen (with range, flat iron, kitchen table etc) and parlour (with the ‘posh’ tablecloth, ornaments etc). I always tell Mum to leave me there and let me live there!

The cottage is in the midst of a beautiful walled garden, maintained by volunteers. In it there is the outside privy, some chickens in a small run, old fruit trees, and a neatly bordered vegetable garden complete with scarecrow! Heaven! I know I’m romanticising, but I love to imagine living there – providing I have the option to return to modern conveniences when I feel like it, of course!

Click the title of the post for a link to Gressenhall's website!