Aren't Giveaways Just Great?

In October last year I won Jo's giveaway of a packet of Mini Munch cucumber seeds. Jo writes The Good Life blog where she has recently shown us the start of her mini munch cucumber harvest. We planted our seeds in the greenhouse and are now starting to harvest the cucumbers. Thanks again Jo for having the giveaway.

Yesterday I received a lovely parcel of goodies from Una. I was the winner of Una's recent birthday giveaway on her Great Balls of Wool blog; something I never expected! There's a 50g ball of Jaeger Spiral-spun pure wool in a gorgeous heather shade, a Cath Kidston notebook, buttons covered with Fair Trade fabric, a cute owl keyring from Oxfam (supporting independent artisans in India) and a very useful button tin. It came in this lovely cotton bag, too. I can think of lots of ways to use it! Thank you very much Una and I hope you have (or possibly already have had) a great 60th birthday.

I should think about having another giveaway, I suppose. Just not sure what to offer as a prize! Here's a picture of one of the flower beds that I snapped very quickly at the weekend. Even though we haven't had good weather this summer, it's still possible to tell that the season is moving on and heading, eventually, into Autumn.

Bye for now.

Late Summer Garden

So, what's happening in the garden now we're at the very tail end of the summer? All the plums have been gathered in and the tomatoes are still  ripening and being picked every other day. I'm still making pasta sauce as this is something we eat quite a lot of and is a good way of using up lots of tomatoes. You can read about the plums and tomatoes here and here.
 
Apples are now just about ready and started to be used too. I made two apple and blackberry crumbles with some windfalls and blackberries foraged from our local hedges.
 

 

 
Here are the crumbles before going into the Aga. 
 

It's hard to tell what's in them so here's a side view.

Straight out of the oven, smelling delicious.

Look at that beautiful colour where the blackberries and apples have melded.

Better leave the culinary delights and get back to the garden. 
 
The onions have been prised out of the ground and are drying. The garlic was lifted weeks ago.
 

 
These parsnips are doing well. We had some roasted and they were very tasty but they're better left until after the frost has sweetened them. Which reminds me - we had our first frost two weeks ago!! It was -1.9 C; I don't think I remember any other year when we had frost in August. The carrots are coming on well too but they're covered to keep the carrot flies off.
 

 
Leeks a-plenty for making soup, among other things. We love leek and Stilton soup; the next time I make some I'll share the recipe.
 

 
The strawberry runners have been planted in a new bed for next year.
 

 
Late summer flowers are doing their best to brighten up the garden for us.
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 There are still poppies flowering, though not very many.

 Some things are now repeat flowering; like this buddleia and the wisteria.
  

 

 
Would you believe we even have some primroses flowering? Very strange for this time of year.

 Just look at this bee that has gone right inside the flower.

As well as flowers there are nice architectural features at this time of year too. Some lovely seed heads especially.

To prove that we're about to embark on Autumn the Virginia creeper has changed to a beautiful deep red.

I love these new shoots on the Virginia creeper.

Well that's it for the (very) late summer garden; the very nearly autumn garden. It's really hard to believe that we're into September already. I keep thinking we're starting August - have started to type August several times - and then remember that it's September.

Hope you're enjoying the changing of the seasons wherever you are. Either summer to autumn or winter to spring. I'm glad so say that I love all the seasons as they each have so many good things to celebrate.

Beeswax and Not Quite a Recipe for Dinner

A by-product of the honey harvest we've recently had is beeswax. Now beeswax can be put to many good uses, one of which is making beeswax candles. We have planned to make beeswax candles after each of our honey harvests (we've been keeping bees for about four years) but so far have never got round to it. In fact, we still had the beeswax from last year still waiting to be used. This year we were determined to make the candles.

As it turned out, the husband was off on Bank Holiday Monday (25th August) but I had to work. So the husband made the beeswax candles all on his own. They turned out really well. The colour is natural and when they burn they have a beautiful honey scent.

As well as the candles, some of the beeswax was used to make a few beeswax polish bars. Look, it even says BEESWAX on the bar! Isn't that rather nifty?

Here they are together - candles and polish. He did a good job.

Not to be outdone, I also made something nice for dinner. This isn't really a recipe but more a method for making a tasty meal.

First I cut up a selection of vegetables, mostly from the garden. On this occasion I used two onions, five cloves of garlic (we love garlic but you don't have to use any if you don't want to), three small courgettes, a red pepper, an orange pepper and 250g of chestnut mushrooms. A small pineapple was also cut into chunks and added to the mix. Not everyone likes fruit with meat but it isn't necessary to add any if you don't like it. Sometimes I use a mango instead of pineapple.

The whole lot was fried gently in olive oil until well softened but not completely cooked. Then I added five chicken breast fillets that had been cubed. That was cooked until the outside of the chicken cubes were done and had turned white instead of pink. For vegetarians you can leave out the chicken and it is still really yummy; I've tried it this way too.

Now two tubs of soft cheese were added. Mine were 250g tubs but you don't have to be too exact. Mine were also Extra Light but you can use Full Fat just as well. Sometimes I use crème fraiche, soured cream or even quark. At this stage I also added a jar of mango chutney. Any sort of chutney will do; just use your favourite. I should have used pineapple chutney, I suppose, but I only had mango. Anyway, a really good stir and the juices from the vegetables and chicken combine with the soft cheese and chutney to make a lovely, creamy sauce. Simmer the whole lot until the vegetables and chicken are completely cooked through. To hurry things along I did mine for about 20 minutes in the Aga roasting oven but it could be done for a bit longer at a lower temperature, say in the simmering oven. If you don't have an Aga then just simmer it in your usual way.

Serve with rice, pasta, quinoa or whatever you fancy. Simple but tasty. This amount would serve at least ten people, by the way!

Welcome to my new followers and commenters. It's lovely to have you join in.

Best wishes to you all until the next time.

Plums and Pasta Sauce

The plums are ready for picking so I made a start with them. It's hard to believe how many there are after there being none last year. I picked these....

... and these ... and then some more and there's still more left to pick. That's a seriously big spider!

The plums are delicious just eaten the way they are. Some have been cut up and added to fruit salad. Some have been stewed and then stored in the freezer. The Aga is fantastic for stewing fruit. Just leave the pot on top of the Aga (not on the hot plates), no need even to add water, and after a couple of hours it is perfectly stewed. Like this ...

The stewed fruit was divided into containers for the freezer. Do you wonder at the amount of things I tell you that I've frozen? There's been a lot recently. We have a small freezer in the kitchen, two other under counter freezers and a small chest freezer. They are now almost full so I need to use things like the frozen blackcurrants to make cordial.

Some of the plums I just halved, poached in a little water and some of our own honey. Then I stored the honeyed plum halves in sterilised jars.

With a label added so I don't forget what's in there.

A lot of the plums made their way into three plum crumbles that are now residing in the freezer to be enjoyed some other time.

As well as dealing with the plums I decided to make pasta sauce using some of our tomatoes. Rather than putting them in the freezer! The tomato sauce recipe I use is Sue's of the lovely Quince Tree blog. It is very easy to make but also very delicious.

I made enough for five jars and our dinner.

There's a crocheted baby blanket almost finished too. I'm working on the border and have reached the stage where I'm not sure if there will be enough of the Rowan Milk Cotton to finish. If there isn't then I'm not sure what I'll do - apart from having a good old weep! I got the yarn years ago so I'm not sure if it is still available. Even if it is, the dye number will be different. Ah well, we'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it.

Best wishes to you all.

The Garden in August

It's hard to believe we're into August already. The days are getting noticeably shorter and the weather is cooling. We've had a lot of rain. Why is it that, just because July was so hot and dry, we have to get all the stored up rain dumped on us over the space of a few days? I've got totally soaked several times even though I had a coat and umbrella.

Anyway, this is a great time of year in the garden so this is just a bit of a tour round ours so you can see what's happening.

On the vegetable front we are still eating the Rooster potatoes. This is them scrubbed up ready to cook.

These blue potatoes are now ready for eating too. Their skins are a deep purplish blue and, surprise, surprise, so is the flesh.

The courgettes are almost ready; I don't like them to get too big.

There are Brussels sprouts coming along and some cauliflower just about big enough to use.

We've been eating the butter beans and frozen some (after blanching). They are almost finished now.

I love the inside of the bean pod. It's so silky soft.

We've also been eating these turnips. they're delicious when they're still small. I just boil them for about five minutes and then fry them in a small amount of butter and demerara sugar.

There are tomatoes a-plenty. We're eating them as they ripen but also freezing a considerable amount to be used later for making pasta sauce.

One picking of tomatoes

 

And they just keep coming

The onions are ready for eating now though they haven't been lifted and dried yet for storing over the winter. The garlic is drying and I've started using it.

This tray of sliced onions had my eyes watering until I couldn't see a thing and had to stop slicing every so often until they were all done. I cooked them in the Aga and served them with sirloin steak, potatoes, garlic and beans.

Let's see what fruit there is. There's a great crop of blackberries to come. They are still nowhere near ripe - these are our cultivated ones - though the wild ones in the hedge are further on.

There are apples growing espalier-fashion on the pergola.

We have only one pear tree, a Conference variety, and it's doing very well this year. Last year was a disaster; not a single pear was harvested. A few started to grow but didn't mature.

There is also only one plum tree in the garden; this is a Victoria plum. As with the pears, there were no plums last year. There are so many plums this year that the fruit laden branches are bent to the ground.

We always get a good harvest of apples as we have about half a dozen trees of different varieties.

Hope you like pictures of apples! I have to admit that, although I'm delighted we're going to have so much fruit to pick, there's also a slight feeling of panic that comes over me at this time of year; the nagging question - 'what am I going to do with all this fruit that's all going to be ready to use at, more or less, the same time?' I'm just a panicker; it all works out in the end! By the way, there's also a mountain of grapes in the greenhouse that's ready for picking. Usually I make grape jelly or cordial; using the grapes on their own or mixed with other fruit. Grapes freeze very well so I will probably freeze quite a lot and use it later over the autumn and winter.

So now the flowers. The roses, sweet pea, geraniums and annuals are all continuing to flower.

Gladioli are now strutting their stuff. They are so big and bold. There's plenty more of them to come.

There is a solitary sunflower among the vegetables.

I'm still loving this sea holly (Eryngium). The colour is more vivid in real life.

Now, what do you think of this gorgeous wee robin who came for a bath? He seemed to really enjoy splashing about in this puddle, left in our drive after a very heavy shower.

Then he retreated to a flower bed to dry off.

It won't be long now until we extract the honey. I'm looking forward to telling you all about it.

Enjoy what remains of summer (or look forward to the coming of summer if you're in the southern hemisphere).

All the best for now.