Sunday 6 July 2008

Garden Visit and Jam.

Several people from the Garden Club visited me on Thursday evening to look at my tiny garden. Everyone was very kind and complimentary and I look forward to seeing what other people have done in their gardens in the next couple of months. Sasha didn't manage to find my house, but brought along a whole bag of lettuce to the pub, which was gleefully shared out among us.
Today is Vicky's birthday, so as she decided on an Indian Takeaway for her birthday meal, we had a roast dinner last night. I had the first picking of runner and french beans to go with it, as well as some broad beans and courgettes. I also harvested another pot of spuds, Lady Crystl again. The yield was around 500g, but only 4 potatoes, 3 pretty big ones. They tasted good, but I was hoping for more, smaller ones. Still as they were planted in recycled compost, and the tubers were those I'd saved last year, I hadn't spent much on growing them. Next time I'll try a pot of the Vales Emerald and see how they are doing.
As the courgettes are doing so well, and aren't bothered by lack of pollinating insects, I put in a couple of seeds to grow on in the greenhouse in the autumn. The main plants will have exhausted themselves by then, so hopefully this will extend the season and there will be room once the tomatoes and cucumbers are out.
Yesterday I also noticed the blackcurrants on the Ben Conan bush were begining to drop, so I picked all of them, even the slightly unripe ones from Ben Sarek. Altogether, once I'd prepared them, there were 400g. I also had 400g of blackberries I'd picked from the hedgerow last autumn in the freezer, so I combined the 2, cooked them up with 400ml of water and sieved out the seeds. I ended up with 900ml of juice/pulp, so I added 1kg of sugar to make a lovely jam. There is a definite blackberry flavour, but a tang from the blackcurrants, and it has set well. I had some small ceramic pots from some desserts we'd bought a while ago, around 200ml I suppose. I got 5 of these, plus one conventional 1lb jam jar. My mum was very pleased to get a small jar today, as she doesn't bother to make jam anymore, but does appreciate home made varieties.
I love it when all the work that has been put in earlier in the year begins to pay off. The satisfaction of feeding home grown produce to the family is enormous, even though I haven't room to be self sufficient. Looking forward to the cherries soon!

1 comment:

Kath said...

Enjoying reading your blog, BarleyAnn. I have Ben Sarek too - it's a fantastic blackcurrant.

Flum