Processing the Harvest

:D No, proper stuff that makes the nose burn when you smell it:D

 

Reminds me of drinking Wray & Nephews in the Jamaican restaurant around the corner from where Mrs Scrungee used to live.


Picked 6 lbs of blackberries (for wine) in about an hour this afternoon. Wife and daughter picked 1 lb 8 ozs between them in the same time for a pie!

I've only come back to reinvigorate myself with some blackberry & elderberry wine from last year before going picking again because I've got a feeling the Devil might piddle on them early this year.

 

I made some, the outer bits did burn a bit but the rest was fine, then I ground it up with a fork,
it does actually taste and smell like a strange coffee, buy obviously you'll know that, ha ha,

 

Nice one Rob, yet again i'm reading this with a cup of it in my hand:D

It's very good for you,

Dandelion Tea Benefits

They probably call it tea because they've never tasted it themselves

 

Dug up my carrots today. :D
I think there good since we're infested with rootfly,
not one seems to have been hit by them and i've not sprayed them with anything and there not a resistant variety,
mayby a bad year for rootfly, :yess:

 

Nice one Rob.

Are you going to freeze some or store them in dry sand ?

 

Processing the Harvest - From the hedgerow, that is.

Just got a couple of gallons of Damson wine on the go, 12lb of fruit in this batch for extra body...yum yum.

And I've picked the first half stone of Elderberries today, so will be sorting through those tonight. Then out tomorrow for more...

Steve...

 

My sister makes soup then bags it up and freezes it, so mayby i'll do thay,

What you going to do with them?
I was thinking of making a jam,

 

I haven't done a lot this year, waited to get my back garden.

However, over the year i had a few courgettes, which i ate, lots of bramley apples, which i have now frozen, cooked with and given some away to family and friends.

Redcurrants and rhubarb, which i have frozen mainly to use this winter.

Oh and nearly forgot i grew some tomatoes, which i've had very few and some are just ripening, but i don't have a greenhouse and i grew garlic which were small but perfectly formed, but only a few so i am in the process of cooking with them.

Not bad for my container garden this year, will hopefully be better next year, as i have planted lots of fruit bushes and and shall have 2 raised beds to use. So looking forward to next year :yess:

 

My garden is mostly of the 'floral' variety - that said, apart from what has been eaten fresh, I've frozen 16lb of runner beans: 4 lb French beans; 3lb raspberries; made 15lb of red tomato relish; lost count of how much tomato soup is in the freezer, bottled about 8lb of cherry toms (taking the skin of those was 'fun'!). I've made 8lb damson jam; 10lb crab-apple jelly; abt., 3lbs mint jelly (although it's in baby-food jars so hard to tell exactly); 4lb raspberry jam and 4lb red currant jelly. 3 litres raspberry sorbet, 2 of raspberry ice-cream, 2 of strawberry ice-cream and 1 of lavender ice-cream. I've dried lavender for culinary use later on and have dried sufficient mixed herbs to see myself (and the 3 daughters) well into next year's harvest. I'm just waiting for the quince since I/we adore quince jelly. Apart from the ubiquitous chutney (which none of us like), I'm still wondering what to do with all green tomatoes I'm inevitably going to get.

 

All this lot has now been pressed and either pasteurised or is fermenting.



This afternoon I'm steam extracting juice from about 60 lbs of soft fruits taken out the freezer yesterday (to make room for more or the veggie harvest + some more blackberries). Then back to apple pressing tommorow.

 

Blimey Scrunge,

You really are a small farm:D

 

It's only just starting as I've just got back from pear picking (from a second tree & one more to go), 6 galls of pear juice gets put in a fermenter for wine tommorow, about 750 lbs more apples to press + looks like good tides next week for getting a couple of days away, oh the pressure of 'work'.

I've grafted a few of the apples in the box on the front LH side (great drinking juice and a good 'sweet' for cider making), and I'm going to graft some of the 'crabs' on the front RH side next year (they grow to nearly 40mm dia at front of hedge) as they're a really good 'bittersharp'.

 

Excellent, where you go fish ?

 

Watching the winds to see if worthwhile hitting West Bex at dawn for mackies & garfish, then to West Somerset to target congers and perhaps some of those cod that are showing. I'll also be taking my prawn nets and frozen mackie heads from catches earlier this year, as it's my favourite time for prawning.

All that means I have to clear enough freezer space to get my freezer blocks in by monday pm at the latest, which is another reason to empty some freezer space, and as soon as they come out bags of pears will go in. Whole defrosted pears press really well, so if if come back with chiller boxes full of fish, the pears come out and they go in.

So I've managed to get this thread back on topic!