Apple Picking Time

The time had come to pick the cooking apples. We grow them espalier-fashion between the posts of the pergola.

The apples were big; some of them were very big.

 I have rather large hands but still I could hardly hold these monster apples.

Here is the apple compared to a £1 coin. According to the Royal Mint, a pound coin has a diameter of 22.5 mm. I weighed the apple too . It weighed a pound!

It only took two apples to make a delicious tart.

I've made three tarts so far and also used some apples in making my Christmas puddings. Actually, I must do a post about making Christmas puddings as the recipe is a good one.

Thanks for your lovely comments about my crochet projects.

Snowy Days

Welcome back; it's lovely to have you visiting again. When I tried to do this post a few days ago, I couldn't load my photos because of a server error. I've no idea what caused it or how to fix it. Thankfully I have a new iMac, just set up today, and I'm able to load my photos without any problem.

On Friday last the husband was off for the day; I'm always off on Fridays. We were going to take the trailer and get loaded up with wood blocks but we woke to a white world. We decided that discretion was the better part of valour and didn't try taking the car out with the trailer attached.

We leave plenty of food for the wild birds and they really needed it. The feeders are next to our beehives.

 I couldn't resist taking some photos as it looked really lovely.

 All of a sudden the snow started falling again. It was beautiful to watch though it made everything look like the world was in black and white instead of colour.

The poor wee birds. They still had to come looking for food even though it was snowing.

These two daffodils are the only two in the garden that are blooming!

Now it just so happens that on Thursday last week (the day before it snowed), I saw a pattern for crocheted socks in the Simply Crochet magazine. And, I saw where Daisy had actually crocheted said socks. In fact, she has since crocheted another pair for her mother. Well, when I saw the snow I knew what I simply had to do; crochet a pair of cosy socks for myself. I couldn't start right away as we braved the elements and went out for coffee. It was actually Friday evening before I could finally get out some yarn, my hooks and the pattern and get started. I thought it would be a good idea to work the two socks together. So make the toe for the first sock, make the toe for the second sock, work the first stripe of the first sock, work the first stripe of the second sock and so on. Things went really well until I had done the number of rows stated in the pattern before I was supposed to turn the heel. I have long, narrow feet which necessitated me having to work an extra five rows before the foot section was long enough! That held me back!! I crocheted like someone possessed as I really wanted to get them finished before going to bed. Anyway, I turned the heel on both socks and crocheted the number of rows that were supposed to be completed before the rib top. Again this was too short for me and I needed an extra three rows. Too late though for Friday night and I had to leave them to finish on Saturday.

The snow was still about on Saturday as there were some more snow showers overnight. It was a beautiful day so, after being out in the morning, I spent the afternoon in the kitchen. I made more blackcurrant cordial and a batch of cranberry sauce. We had some with Sunday lunch and it was delicious.

Then I also baked apple and blackberry tart using fruit from our garden. This is the first tart ...

... and this is the second.

Side by side!

These were also delicious even though I say so myself!

What about my socks? I got them finished on Saturday evening and took some photos on Sunday morning.

The socks are very cosy and I just love looking at them. They make me laugh every time I see them. I'm hoping you'll let me know what you think of them.

I'm just so excited to be able to get back to my blogging with this new iMac. It's taking a bit of getting used to but I'm picking it up pretty quickly.

Something else exciting happened. I won a giveaway! And my prize arrived today. It is a beautiful pink rabbit that Suzy very kindly sent me. You can see the rabbit here but I will also be taking photos of it and letting you see how lovely it is.

That's all for now. Thank you for all your comments and a welcome to new followers. I hope you are managing to keep warm wherever you are and hopefully not too warm.

What I Did With all Those Plums

This year we've had a bumper crop of plums; I told you about picking them here and here. 

 

As well as just enjoying them the way they came off the tree (washed first of course!), I spent a lot of time stoning plums and making various plum dishes so we could preserve all the fruit. Some of the fruit was stewed and stored in the freezer and some was just frozen uncooked but with the stones removed.

 

This simple dish below is made by lining a baking tin with puff pastry, laying plum halves on top, sprinkling with a bit of demerara sugar and then baking. I can't remember for sure now, but I think I made four of these.

 

Quite a lot of honeyed plums were also made. It's amazing how many plums it takes to fill a jar once they've been softened gently.

Plum crumble is a must-make.

Last, but not least, I made plum sponge. This is really a pudding rather than a cake. First I layered plum halves in a deep Pyrex dish, sprinkling some sugar between the layers. I then used a recipe that makes a very light sponge and poured it over the plums. Some of the sponge mixture made its way between the plums but most of it stayed on top. The pudding was baked until the sponge was golden, enough time to soften the plums below. This was a good way to use up a lot of our own eggs as well as plums!

Here are some of the eggs we've been lifting lately. The one on the left is a normal sized hen's egg laid by one of the older hens. The one on the right was laid by one of our new hens that have just started laying. The one at the front must be the first ever egg laid by one of the new hens! Look how tiny it is. But it had a yolk and I was able to use it!

There are many sponge recipes around so just use whatever is your favourite if you want to make this pudding. And I'm sure any sort of soft fruit - or even apples cut into small chunks - would work just as well as the plums.

I'm not quite sure how many crumbles and sponges I made; three of each, I think. But there aren't that many now as we've been eating our way steadily through them. The Aga really comes into its own for this sort of cooking or baking. It's only since moving to this house that I have got an Aga but I would hate to have to go back to a normal cooker again.

September is proving to be a lovely month so far. The early morning skies are beautiful, there are mists, there are bountiful crops and the swallows are still swooping around, preparing to leave us.

No-one sums up this time of year better than John Keats in his poem Ode to Autumn.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

 

 

I love that poem. All the best for now and thanks for all your lovely comments. It really makes my day to read them.

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.