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| Gooseberry and Mint Jam. |
Well, so far so good with my ‘half hour allotmenting’ plan!
I have been up there every night – I have even managed to drag a variety of
family members up with the promise of “It’ll only be half an hour-tops”.
My useful book divides the half hour up into a list of jobs
in descending order of importance. Picking, planting, weeding, watering then
digging. In fairness I have struggled to get much beyond ‘picking’ as the
raspberries and gooseberries have gone mad. Now, I like a raspberry or two but
this is getting blooming ridiculous. I have made raspberry jam galore,
raspberry jelly (that didn’t turn out so well), raspberry ice cream and raspberry
crumble. Not to mention raspberry muffins and raspberry eton mess. I am now scouring books for other
interesting raspberry recipes to ring the changes a bit!
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| My raspberry collection device - proving most handy! |
I tackled the gooseberries today. They aren’t my favourite
fruit either to eat or to harvest (my poor arms) but I figured that as we had
inherited a few bushes on the plot it was the least I could do to try and put
some to good use. I have made a batch of gooseberry and mint jam and the rest
we are turning into alcohol J
I’m assured that gooseberry wine is very lovely indeed.....
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| DH wields the uncapping fork! |
With all the picking and making it does all seem a little ‘Good
Life’ round here but I am loving it! We managed to extract about 15lbs of honey
from one of our hives which was an added bonus as we didn’t expect any. Fingers
crossed there might even be a little more before the end of the season. The garden is also producing well – broad beans
are coming in and the ruby chard looks almost too beautiful to eat! Some things
are struggling though – all the squashes are very behind and I don’t think we
will see much from them this year. The courgettes are tiny (which isn’t a bad
thing!) and the runner beans are only just making their way up the poles. I
have even picked some sweet peas to enjoy in the house after I read somewhere
that they produce far more flowers if you pick them regularly.
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Well, off to create more exciting things with a raspberry –
I’ve just seen something called a ‘miniature raspberry and basil financier’......I’m
assuming it is for eating and not offering sound financial advice but I will
let you know!
