Processing the Harvest

I can live with that worry. Once (this is true, I do not invent stuff) my mushroom hunting partner and I were working way back in the forest in North Montana and we found a dead bear - we cut out the tenderloin and some off the hams and ate it till it just got too stinky - although we would stew it a long wile to tenderize it.

Here is the kitchen of a remote work camp - most of the cooking done over the fire, there is my wife and old dog

It was a long time ago, in a different world

 

A lovely setting Colne, your very own wilderness!

 

As I write here I have a plate balanced on my leg, an omelet of eggs from my pogy fed chickens, dried garlic chives, parsley, basil from the garden - (also bought black pepper and a dash of Herb de Provence) And the lovely American, individually wrapped, sliced, cheese product - which I love.

That is an omelet! The garlic chives really kick it into gear, the rosemary hint adds nuances of the dry hillsides of summer on the French Med, the American cheese product - a creaminess reminiscent of dairy. Definitely more than the sum of the parts.

Yum

 

Did you eat ALL of those Colne?
Jenny

 

No, no, that would be ridiculous. Had to save room for some aerosol cheese to dress it properly



(And aerosol cheese is really tasty in a low sort of way, for squirting on your corn chips to moderate that killer hot salsa. And to just fat bomb it too, with cheesy flavor (contains cheese too))

 

Haven't seen those over here Colne...
and ,
furthermore...
Jenny

 

My wax beans are producing. And the banana peppers. Greens are on the way out fast - the Brussels sprouts have become some caterpillar feeders and should be fed to the chickens as it is too late to get any but tiny sprouts from them, planted too late. They have tiny sprouts but will be a pest breeding ground. Shame.

 

Sprouts whacked down and fed to the chickens, sorry moment. More beans planted. First tomatoes eaten, banana peppers being eaten, berries being frozen for later jam making.

And I have just made my standard custard. I use my pressure cooker, that invaluable tool. Beat 6 eggs, 1 cup plus a tiny bit, mixed sugar and artificial sweetener (the kind that replaces sugar by equal volume), some vanilla, and about 4 cups milk. Just throw it all in a bowl, beat it, put the bowl into the pressure cooker on a rack, top up the milk and stir (hold back some milk till it is in the pot so you do not spill - I fill the bowl to the top.) Cook 10 lbs for 7 - 9 minutes and then turn off heat and leave for a couple hours unopened for the pressure to slowly drop and to cool - transfer the bowl to refrigerator.

Rain hacking down. Very wet outside, the pond trail is a soggy mess.

 

Hi Colne,
our first trip to Tanyards today - open season has begun. The rasps and strawbs both grown , this early in the season, in tall polytunnels. Strawbs and easy to pick at waist height and in bags with a built in irrigation system. They are sound and sweet ecen though we have had less than average sunshine this month,
Jenny

a bit pricey but it's the first of the crop. Cost will go down as more arrive and there's a fear of glutting

Jenny

 

They are beautiful. I bought one pound of strawberries at Walmart for $1.78, about 2.5 British Pounds/kg - but trucked in from some California industrial farm

I now have 2 one (USA) gallon bags of blackberries in the freezer. Sour things, I cannot leave them to ripen fully or they disappear - but then they will be cooked into jam and possibly syrup so getting sugar content is not needed - although the flavor will not be excellent either - but the birds, rats, mice, opossums, raccoons, and whatever else leave me no choice.

Look at these Kioa blackberries! And these are just typical nice ones - with a euro coin.



And Jenny, I do appreciate you showing the prices - I find prices of foods, and costs related, as interesting as any part of preparing a garden or meal. Money is very much a large factor in all of that - economics set prices by so many variables - but we keep up with industries, global trade, technology and everything with pricing as a factor.

Tell us what you will be doing with your berries. I hope to make those meringues tomorrow (using the oven in the evening makes the house too hot - warm weather is here) and do something with cream, sugar, and the Wal-mart strawberries, if they will be ready by then.

I make a lot of jelled custards, like baked ones but done in the pressure cooker and will think of how to use fruit with that - or make a custard sauce next.

 

We divided them between us and some nearby neighbours They are elderly and find PYO trips beyond their ability now but appreciate always asking them if they would like us to pick for them as well. Had strawbs chopped up with my Kellogs Crunchynut Cornfakes for brekkie. And had them au naturel for pudding yesterday evening with cream. We froze quite a few rasps singly on open trays overnight and they've been bagged up in day size portions. They defrost so well and lose little of their freshness - if consumed in a month. We tend to "pig out" on the Summer's bounty and apart from the odd gooseberry or rhubarb crumble from frozen, we try to only eat what's in season,
Jenny

 

And today, the garden mint is at it's zenith. Full of flavour and ready for harvesting. I strip the leaves off the stem, stack them up in a pile and cut them thinly across with sharp scissors. Then sprinkle in a fair bit of sugar and then chop it all finely. Then just put it in jar , cover with malt vinegar and keep it in the fridge to have a teaspoonful with my roast lamb.

Jenny

 

My mints are all small yet, I have them in the woods in 1 foot X 1 foot X 6 inches deep boxes filled with a compost based potting soil. Here you can buy Cross and Blackwell Mint jelly - bright green from food coloring and I would like to make something similar possibly. It is apple based and I have planted the crab apples just for that. I will dry some soon though, for some Mediterranean cooking.

I planted a couple chocolate mints and tried them as tea but not too good - the Confederate mint smells good but have not tried it yet.

 

And Jenny, I saw you were from Battle and - I hope that is not creepy - but googled maped the location and how the names of all around brought on nostalgia... We watched part 1 of Simon Schama, BBC, A History of Britain, last night. I know Orkney very well having spent a lot of time there, even doing one of the digs of a Broch so could not help my self narrating all about the monuments to my wife as they popped up (Orkney being their bit of Neolithic Britain) but in just a bit it was on to Hastings and all that. I was so disappointed in the BBC, as always, for not talking of demographics - genetics really, of the Norman Conquest. My understanding of it was under 50,000 Normans (he mentioned 25,000 ruling but hinted at full colonization) were actually all - into an English population of 2,000,000. What an amazing bit of history you live right in - USA is so utterly void of that, that sometimes it seems like being in a mall or something, some artificial construct rather than an actual part of the human world.

But then I grew up visiting archeological sites and old places and always felt the continuity of the past strongly. It must be lovely there now.

 

Jenny, been reading of the European Frankish times and into the start of Norman - but I have checked out a book on Central Gulf Native American history, something I have been terribly remiss in not doing before.

But here to say I made your Pavlova, and looked up the name to find it is from a dessert an Australian chef made for the dancer Pavlova - I wondered where that name came from. As a youngster we used to stay in a fine hotel in Bavaria regularly and I would always have the Baked Alaska for dessert - it would be tri-colored icecream flash baked in a shell of meringue, amazing!

For some reason I cannot get the Delia site, it comes up so tiny it cannot be read - but read recipies here and there and went with: 6 egg whites, 150g white sugar, dash vanilla, pinch cream of tarter. Then made 4 nice bowl shaped pavs, have frozen 3 as an experiment, and had one. They were perfect two person size - amazing dessert.

I used those dubious, but cheap, Wal-malt strawberries, sliced and sugared an hour previous - 6 oz whipping cream with a toss of sugar whipped. *** (three stars, and so simple)