The garden is giving up and hours spent in the kitchen

   

There are Bramley apples all over the ground.  St Monty of Don (the patron saint of Gardeners’ World) claims this is a good thing as the tree is looking after itself whilst under stress.  I am thinking that it is a good thing that I will have fewer I need to process.   I am very much aware that we have not finished last year’s jars of apple sauce yet.  That said a (retired) friend who has a very early fruiting tree informed me today that beyond those they eat immediately all her eating apples are going in the garden waste bin.   Clearly I am not alone in suffering some lethargy right now.

As luck may have it we do not have anything like the crop of Coxs this year, the Braeburn numbers are up and a decent size but it is a potted patio tree so has its limits.  This means we may have some breathing space re eating apples as we have yet to finish last year’s dehydrated apple rings (though not far off), frozen apple wedges or jars of Amish apple pie filling.  This is notwithstanding S has apple rings on his oats every weekday morning we are at home and the apple pie filling is considered very much a success from its first trial last year both at ours and the MiL’s.

The Williams (Bartlett, I believe, across the pond) pears are, however, beginning to look a little full on though both the Comice and the Conference are some way off yet.  Two jars of pears were bottled (or canned if you prefer) with no doubt more to follow next weekend.

Much of this weekend, as respite from watering, has been spent doing something with the odds and end that are ripe and need something doing with them.  Round courgettes (I couldn’t face another stuffed one) and Trombonchino were grated and frozen in 150g bags save for the Trombo that went fresh into a cake.  Yes, really it is vegetable cake season!  

The mixed variety of tomatoes I had, some of which have been struggling with blossom end rot, were all skinned, deseeded, cooked up and blended before being poured into a jar, some lemon juice added and water bathed.  I’ll call it ‘passata’ for ease though I appreciate that might well offend many Italians especially as I was too lazy to sieve it to remove the remaining seeds.   I will regret that later but I was running out of time this weekend before the weekend even got under way.  It isn’t taking up freezer room is the main thing right now.  

Two cucumbers from the greenhouse (I have got more than enough fermented cucumber to be going on with for now), together with some carrots from pots outside and a red pepper and some shallots that were lurking in the kitchen became fridge pickles. 

 

Eating apples were peeled, sliced, dipped in lemon water, dried off and spread over 5 trays in the dehydrator.  They have been followed by borlotti beans.  All the beans on the main frames have really suffered this last week in the latest heatwave.  The ones growing on the outside of the tomato frames have fared better.  There is an old underground water course on the other side of the fence on that side of the garden which may be helping and the tomatoes give some shade.  That said the main squash bed is on that side seems to think its job is done - in August???.   For those who are interested/know about these things I believe we equate to USDA Zone 9a/9b.  The leaves are all dying back and the squash are colouring up/curing in the sun.  It’s all seems to me to be rather early.  Still, at least, squash will sort out a decent degree of longevity without any intervention from me.

The result of quite a bit of time in the kitchen and a bag of cores, peelings and seeds that seemed larger than the pile of fruit and veg I started with was, as S put it, 5 jars and a bottle.  The alternative, which might have looked more impressive, was to do a vat of Glutney but this little lot, although time consuming, is probably more likely to be eaten.  It still doesn’t seem much for the effort though!