Processing the Harvest

Well thats a catering sized jar of pickled Beetroot done (with only 2 Beets as well) Another load of Dandelion Coffee in the oven and a humungus pan of Apple Chutney on the go.

Got another box of Beetroot & Sugar Beet to process tommorow & a bag of Bramleys to sort out.

Hows everyone elses Harvest going & what are you doing with it?

 

It is not

GREEN TOMATOES, and not a chef have no idea about chutney
Peppers and chilli stopped at half inch
Today SWMBO insisted I plant the Jasmine out of the pot into the ground
So I did my usual storming off grabbed a spade made the hole and stood back onto my carefully regrown budleija snapping it off at the base
(After last winter Budlija was flat on ground and dead, I dug up the root and it had one bud, re planted and it came back, from April to now with several flowers about four foot high, stood on it and snapped the stem at ground level)


Soaking wet rotten compost heap

Jack McH

 

Blanched and froze some French beans today, also shelled, blanched and froze some Borlotti too. Made some very basic tomato chutney yesterday and earlier this week made some Damson Jam.

This week I'll be getting some damson wine going then a batch of Crabapple wine too. I'll be out in the morning looking for more Damsons for another batch of Jam.

Steve...

 

50 gallons of apple & pear juice pressed so far which has been either turned into wine or pasteurised for drinking. Juice extracted from 50 lbs of blackberries for winemaking. Four freezers full of fruit and veg, and that fruit will get turned into jam, jelllies, juice or wine freeing up space for more veg and stuff processed into products such as veggie sausages/burgers, potato courgettes, etc. Pasta sauce has been going in the freezers so far, but there's such a stack of boxes of tomatoes building up it'll soon be turned into passata/sauce and pasteurised. Desperately trying to pick as many blackberries as possible whilst there's some left whilst continuing pressing apples & pears that have come a month early.

Still got chutney left from last year, but have got a whole mushroom box full of mini onions for pickling (all those free sets from Homebase) that were closely planted and provided all the spring onions we could eat, and those we didn't grew on as 'pickling onions', which had made up for losing hundreds of shallots to bolting this year.

Start dehydrating pears next week.

 

2 big tomates which we have eaten and to memory it is the first edible produced by me.
I am not taking into account a few leaves of salad which I grew in 94 and eaten a few days after. I had sprayed some aphid killer insecticide a few days before on them and I had the biggest tummy acke ever...

 

Ooo, not nice Mira. Well done with the first Tomatoes though

Glad everyone is squirreling away. Forgot about the blanched beans, must have about 6 bags in the freezer by now, along with lots of stewed Rhubarb. Have used a marker pen this year after the incident with the stewed leeks & custard last year:DOH:

No leeks this year though, something has wiped out all three beds.

This pasturizing Scrunge, is that just putting open jars in the oven & bringing it upto a certain temperature or does it involve an x ray machine & lead shielding?

 

You must tell me about this dandelion coffee, :D

 

I'm drinking a cup now.

Chop the roots finely, I use an autochop thinger from the 1970s, spread em on a baking tray & roast untill they are dark brown, not black & charred like I did the other week:DOH:

2 tablespoons boiled up for a few mins, till the water has gone dark brown.

Strain, milk & 2 sugars By leaving a few dandelions to grow big in the veg plot I make enough to brew it all year round.

 

This sort of method The Cider Workshop | Production | Juice Pasteurising

 

Cheers Scrunge, have put that on my favourites list

 

Nice one Marley

Just bottled 9 jars of Chutney, got fed up with it last night:D 10 Gallons of wine is next & then start the candying process.

 

Apples usually, thinking about Borage flowers too. Made 5 galls of Blackcurrant wine, Bottled up 6 bottles of yellow wine(might be Cranberry & Apple) Was just about to bottle 12 bottles of Rum but there was too much shouting in the kitchen.:OUCH: Will try again in a minute.