It's definitely strawberry season here, Saturday I picked 700 grams and this afternoon another 800. Now, I love strawberries. Probably my number 1 favourite fruit after fresh pineapple, or a crunchy granny smith, but those we have to buy so I guess it's the most cost effective favourite fruit. And all these are still coming from plants of plants of plants from the original 3 we bought about 7 years ago. A good investment.
Back to strawberries and what to do them all? I could eat them any time of day, lovely straight from the plant all warm and sunny, with yoghurt for breakfast, in a fruit salad, just a handful to nibble whenever. John likes them sliced and sugared and left to marinate for a while and in a fruit salad, but when Saturdays 700 grams appeared on the table there was a "any chance of strawberry jam?" request. So that's what I made on Sunday, when it was cool enough I dolloped some on a slice of buttery bread said 'try this.'
Now I know everyone is different - the world would be very boring if not - but he does like his jam to be - quote - not lumpy. So raspberry seedless, or bramble jelly, I make peach jam and that's not a jelly and he enjoys that, but when I asked how was the jam he said 'didn't manage to get rid of the lumps then!'
I hoped he was joking but ....... 'You can't have strawberry jam without strawberries' I said, 'otherwise you'd have to just use the juice (how, I don't know) and then it would be strawberry jelly. The clue is in the name of it.'
In the freezer are a couple of pots of strawberry puree from last year that I was keeping for maybe using in a trifle or some other pudding out of season. Next time I'm shopping I'm going to buy John a bag of sugar, defrost the puree, and leave him to experiment with a smooth strawberry jam. I'm sure it'll work and taste exactly the same, but to me strawberry jam has strawberries in it. Lumps in other words.
Monday, 27 May 2013
Sunday, 26 May 2013
Cute kid :)
Remember the grazing goats from the end of April? They were out as usual last night but just half an hour or so ago when we went past there was an extra one, quite a recent addition I think as it was quite wobbly still on it's legs. Looking at mama I wonder if there is another to come yet?
Friday, 24 May 2013
Winning the battles.
I think we're winning the battle this week - or battles perhaps that should be. 2 weeks ago John was away for a couple of days and 4 days after he got home he got the dreaded lurgy that seems to occur after airline travel. The sore throat, stinking cold, chesty cough, aches and pains, sound familiar? Not content to keep it to himself, last Sunday I woke with the start of a sore throat and now 6 days later am still coughing, chesty, blocked nose and trying so hard not to wince and pull my back muscles again. That was a problem for a couple of weeks, but helped enormously by doing 20 minutes of exercises twice a day - luckily I'd kept the book that we got about 18 or so years ago when I had bad problems.
So the other battles are - or were - the sweet peas which are well on their way to a better life reseeding and rotting on the lower land, a broad bean patch which collapsed in the winds of last week and the beans are not going to get any bigger with broken stems, John cut them all down this morning and I de-beaned and podded - 3 lots in the freezer and the rest for the weekend, and the rocket. Well, that was just a few plants that seeded themselves in the wrong place and that I moved into our raised bed. They then grew and grew and grew and produced so many flowers and now so many seed pods, that if they are allowed to seed themselves where they are, they'll totally take over that vegetable plot. I cut off all the flower / seedpod stalks this morning and put them in a bucket. It's a large bucket, one of those black rubbery ones that we all have loads of over here, cheap and long lasting.
Tomorrow I need to de-seed the rocket so the big pods can dry out for next year, and get planted where we want, the rest will go to rot with the sweet peas probably. Then the vegetable patch can be dug over and composted for our summer veg - the lettuces are still fine in there so we're going to add peppers, cucumbers, chillis, courgettes and what ever else there is room for. We try to keep that area as a kitchen garden as it's the closest to the house for when you just want something quickly, rather than the rest of the veg patches which are for more long term stuff such as strawberries, squash, beans and peas.
Beautiful day yesterday and today, until about 4pm when a big cloud came over, dropped loads of rain and disappeared. Sunshine above us, sunshine down the valley, and the cloud just went once it had dropped it's rain. Stopped me digging though!
More tomorrow - weather permitting. It says a chance of rain, ie 2mm - sometimes that just means heavy cloud which is good digging weather.
So the other battles are - or were - the sweet peas which are well on their way to a better life reseeding and rotting on the lower land, a broad bean patch which collapsed in the winds of last week and the beans are not going to get any bigger with broken stems, John cut them all down this morning and I de-beaned and podded - 3 lots in the freezer and the rest for the weekend, and the rocket. Well, that was just a few plants that seeded themselves in the wrong place and that I moved into our raised bed. They then grew and grew and grew and produced so many flowers and now so many seed pods, that if they are allowed to seed themselves where they are, they'll totally take over that vegetable plot. I cut off all the flower / seedpod stalks this morning and put them in a bucket. It's a large bucket, one of those black rubbery ones that we all have loads of over here, cheap and long lasting.
Tomorrow I need to de-seed the rocket so the big pods can dry out for next year, and get planted where we want, the rest will go to rot with the sweet peas probably. Then the vegetable patch can be dug over and composted for our summer veg - the lettuces are still fine in there so we're going to add peppers, cucumbers, chillis, courgettes and what ever else there is room for. We try to keep that area as a kitchen garden as it's the closest to the house for when you just want something quickly, rather than the rest of the veg patches which are for more long term stuff such as strawberries, squash, beans and peas.
Beautiful day yesterday and today, until about 4pm when a big cloud came over, dropped loads of rain and disappeared. Sunshine above us, sunshine down the valley, and the cloud just went once it had dropped it's rain. Stopped me digging though!
More tomorrow - weather permitting. It says a chance of rain, ie 2mm - sometimes that just means heavy cloud which is good digging weather.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Sweetpeas running wild.
Doesn't time fly! 4 days since I looked at this and thought about what we've been doing - and most of those days were blustery. Saturday I went into Cádiar to get vegetables from the market and had a coffee with friends who are over for a holiday, Sunday was our acequia watering day, which although the water channels are all in place and kept clean, and some fruit and vegetable beds have irrigation pipes in, still the flow needs checking so we don't overflow and flood places, and we have to make sure the pipes have not blocked with leaves or grit and that the - strawberries mainly - are getting well watered.
No danger of anything drying out today as last night it drizzled just after we went for our last walk, and this morning we woke to cloud and more drizzle. Before the clouds came down over Mecina, I could swear there was snow way up high above the town in the tree line. White in the firebreaks, not dark earthy looking.
Yesterday we started trying to reclaim some of the overgrown paths and flower beds from the wild sweetpeas. They are beautiful, dark pink, but grow at an enormous rate. If they have something to climb up they get as tall as me, if not they just ramble every where and it has become quite difficult to get to the shed, the side vegetable garden, the back gate etc...
The other long term problem is all the seeds that they produce. If we don't get the plants out now before the pods dry and fling seeds everywhere, then next year will be even worse. We leave some plants alone and keep a close eye on the pods to collect the seeds and put them where we want - not where they want to go. We have 3 big piles of pulled out plants waiting for dumping but not today in the drizzle! We take the old unwanted plants down to our lower terraces and let them die off on the bankings so that the seeds can grow there - the more vegetation and roots on a bank the better especially if we get very wet winters. It all helps prevent land slips.
No danger of anything drying out today as last night it drizzled just after we went for our last walk, and this morning we woke to cloud and more drizzle. Before the clouds came down over Mecina, I could swear there was snow way up high above the town in the tree line. White in the firebreaks, not dark earthy looking.
Yesterday we started trying to reclaim some of the overgrown paths and flower beds from the wild sweetpeas. They are beautiful, dark pink, but grow at an enormous rate. If they have something to climb up they get as tall as me, if not they just ramble every where and it has become quite difficult to get to the shed, the side vegetable garden, the back gate etc...
The other long term problem is all the seeds that they produce. If we don't get the plants out now before the pods dry and fling seeds everywhere, then next year will be even worse. We leave some plants alone and keep a close eye on the pods to collect the seeds and put them where we want - not where they want to go. We have 3 big piles of pulled out plants waiting for dumping but not today in the drizzle! We take the old unwanted plants down to our lower terraces and let them die off on the bankings so that the seeds can grow there - the more vegetation and roots on a bank the better especially if we get very wet winters. It all helps prevent land slips.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Peg pinging weather!
Lovely start to the day yesterday so into the washing machine went the sheets and pillowcases, few bits of clothing and out onto the line by 11ish. No sooner were things pegged than a breeze started but that rapidly turned into strong blustery winds that twisted the sheets round and round the line, pegs started pinging off, pillow cases hanging on by - well, I was going to say a thread, but a peg really. So with great difficulty I unravelled everything and with help from John, we folded the sheets up and pegged them onto the airers which are in a more sheltered-ish place.
And then the same again today, albeit without the washing problem. The forecast has a risk of strong gusts here and high winds and high waves along the coast.
Despite that I've been out picking fruit and veg, just peas this time, another half bucket full which when podded gave us almost 750 grams so plenty to eat and to freeze. And also 400 grams of strawberries - the first decent picking of the year.
The box of peas that we bought this time say 'ready to pick in 117 days' - the first planting went in at the very end of November and sure enough we were picking by the middle-ish of March, pretty much as predicted. Now the first planting are finished and yesterdays pickings all came from the ones planted on January 1st - about 130 days - clever isn't it?
Someone asked me 'do you always weigh what you pick' and yes, mostly I do as it's nice to know what we're getting for the work that we put in, and to know what's gone in the freezer because come the depths of winter we won't have a clue unless it's been weighed and written down somewhere!
And then the same again today, albeit without the washing problem. The forecast has a risk of strong gusts here and high winds and high waves along the coast.
Despite that I've been out picking fruit and veg, just peas this time, another half bucket full which when podded gave us almost 750 grams so plenty to eat and to freeze. And also 400 grams of strawberries - the first decent picking of the year.
The box of peas that we bought this time say 'ready to pick in 117 days' - the first planting went in at the very end of November and sure enough we were picking by the middle-ish of March, pretty much as predicted. Now the first planting are finished and yesterdays pickings all came from the ones planted on January 1st - about 130 days - clever isn't it?
Someone asked me 'do you always weigh what you pick' and yes, mostly I do as it's nice to know what we're getting for the work that we put in, and to know what's gone in the freezer because come the depths of winter we won't have a clue unless it's been weighed and written down somewhere!
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