Autumn Abundance

Life has been a bit busy lately.  Firstly, we had family here for a month, so that was fun.  No time for blogging though as any spare time was spent in the garden.

In fact, quite a few days I had them helping to prepare the bounty of the garden into winter stockpiles.  Well, I say they helped... but in fact my Mum seemed to eat as much fruit and green beans as she prepared..... hmmm.  All good though as we had more fruit and veg than we could cope with.

My arriere cuisine is filled to the brim with jars of compote, stewed fruit, jams, sauces, syrups and condiments.  The cellier is stockpiled with parsnips, potatoes and carrots, with more potatoes in one of the dependances.

 In one week I lifted over 130kgs of potatoes!  This does not count the potatoes I have lifted for eating over the summer.  A bit of a shock as it did not look like that much on the ground.  I had 2 rows like the one pictured.  Next year we may just put in one row I think.  Thank goodness for generous neighbours with tractors and potatoe lifters!

We did buy a second freezer, and it is cram packed with veg from the garden.  I have prepared enough green beans, courgettes and kale to last us till next harvest.  Also lots of blackberries, mirabelles, plums, raspberries and other sweet treats filling the shelves. 

Just waiting on the pumpkins to ripen and I can bring them in to add to the collection.  There are some citrouille and butternuts, along with something else that I have fogotten the name of.

I feel a little bit like a squirrel hoarding food away for the winter.

There have been a few fails.  For some reason the rhubarb and peach compote did not want to remain in the pots, and proceeded to ferment and fizz all over the shelf.  Really upset about that one as I adore rhubarb and peaches.  My first batch of tomato sauce did not work either.  It was simply pressed tomatoes with fresh herbs.  Think the herbs needed to be cooked or blanched before adding to the sauce.  I threw them in whole as it looked pretty, and so I wound up with mouldy sauce - even though they were put through a water bath.  Oh well, live and learn.

I do think I have done alright though considering I did not have a big steriliser and have been processng in small batches on the stove.  A huge time saver was my lovely pressure cooker which was an early birthday/Christmas pressent.  So nice to cook things in 30minutes instead of 6hours.

Now it is time to prune the plum trees, and tidy up the rest of the garden.  The apples need to wait till later, so at least the pruning is a bit more spaced out this year.

About 150 bulbs have gone in to the ground so far, with another few hundred to go.  My lawn is looking nice and shows real promise for being lush and verdant next year.  I have been attending gardening workshops at a local nursery, and have quite a few cuttings quietly sprouting away, ready for planting next spring.  Next week we look at dividing plants, so I will increase my stock again.  We have a real liking for grasses, geraniums and lavenders, so they are going to be the main plants, with others scattered amongst them for interest.  Photos will have to wait till next year though as nothing to see now.

Plums!

...and suddenly, there were plums.....

Plums by the hundreds!

All different shapes and sizes, and colours.

All ripe at the same time.

All begging to be made into something, - anything.

What to do?

Well there is only so much jam you can make before you have to say no more.  ... and I do not eat jam, so it would only be poor Wayne who would be going through it.  He does not eat that much bread or toast, so it would take him a lifetime to get through it.  So jam is not going to be practical.

In desperation I turned to bottling. 

A quick scour through my books (which took quite a long time actually as I have a whole bookcase dedicated to cooking, food etc) and I found an easy method for preserving fruit.  This has been my saviour in the quest to use the bounty of our orchard.

Basically you take ripe - but not too ripe - fruit and wash and dry before deseeding and packing in to glass jars.  A layer of sugar goes between each layer of fruit.  Then you close the lid and put in a pot of water and boil.  Voila!

Of course there are measurements and timeframes to take in to account, but it is super easy and quick.  Perfect as I am picking kilos of fruit each day.

I do prefer the fruit in light syrup to jams and other sweet treats, and know I will enjoy these even more come winter when I can make compotes and other treats with our own fruit.

For now I have beautiful jars to look at when I open the cupboard in the arriere cuisine.  Bliss!

For now, it is back to the kitchen to start on the tiny mirabelle plums.......

Fruit, finally

 
 I am sure that everyone is sick of hearing about the weather conditions here, but it is a fact of life when living in the country.  The weather is vitally important.

Fruit and veg have been so horrible.  Poor quality and expensive.  Something we are not used to, as normally the quality is very good and the price is low.

After our wash out spring (literally!) the stone fruit is almost non existant this year.  We had 6 weeks where it hailed every day - right when the blossom was setting on the fruit trees.  Thank you mother nature.

Since then we have had to rely on fruit from Spain and other countries.  Not such a bad thing in the big picture as it has helped their economies, but the price went up as a result, and the quality was just not the same.

Yesterday was a public holiday here.  Assumption Day for those of you interested.  We decided to join friends in the town of Parthenay for coffee.  A drive of about 45mins for us, but worth it to spend an hour socialising with lovely people.  Whilst at the café our friends mentioned that they have far too many plums on their trees and cannot keep up with the demand.  What to do??

So I have kilos and kilos of lovely Damsons and Mirabelles to turn in to jam and sauce.  Bliss!

The reason their trees survived the storms is that they are planted thickly and in some places form the hedge.  So they protected each other.  Genius!  A lesson learnt here for future reference.

I was in heaven at their farm.  Cuddling cats and dogs, picking fruit and fussing over the horses.  What a great life!

The highlight of the day for Wayne.... brunch was served by our friend, and it was cumberland sausages and english bacon..... one happy boy!

I have the most beautiful sunflowers in the garden at present.  Each stem has half a dozen or more flowers on it!  The bees are going wild for the pollen and come away looking like they have been gilded.  The bright bright yellow of the flowers is so clear and sharp that it is almost brighter than the sunshine.  Such a treat as the flowers in my wild meadow area are just about finished and it was looking a bit faded, and then these beauties have decided to pop up and show how flashy and bold they can be.

P.S.  Normally fruit trees need to be planted with space around them to discourage mildew and rot and to encourage ripening of the fruit and good air circulation.  Don't know why the opposite is providing such healthy trees at our friends, but it is working well.