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New toy!
For my birthday, my mother got me an enormous steamer, which I mostly wanted for making cordial in.
The first try was my standard ginger-and-lemon cordial, which I usually make in the stock pot and then steam. There was something of a fail on my part, when the juice slowly seeped out onto the kitchen counter, where it pooled in the window: after much washing and wiping to de-stickify things, I ended up with about a (litre) bottle of juice, when I would normally make four bottles with the same ingredients. Even without the leak, I suspect that it would only have made a couple of bottles at best. It wasn't nearly as gingery as with the other method, but you could taste the honey much more when it hadn't been simmered to death.
Next up, I got Mike to get a couple of bags of plums with the veg box*. They made a very, very purple juice that didn't taste desperately of plums.
* Gosh, but we're eating a lot of veg. I suspect that Mike might struggle a bit when Brassica Time comes, but so far we're enjoying it, and the add-on fruit really is very good. Does anyone have any cucumber suggestions? Mike loathes it, I'll eat it if it's in my sandwich but wouldn't add it voluntarily. I suppose I'll have to pickle them, or something? (We're only allowed two do-not-wants, and we've taken them with cauliflower -- my least favourite brassica -- and celery -- which even I will pick out if it's not rude to do so.)
Today, having yesterday passed a stall in Canterbury that was selling two punnets of local** strawberries for £2.50, I tried those out. I got about a bottle and a third of juice from them, and I think it's lovely: Mike's not so keen, but then he doesn't like the taste of cooked strawberries, and I do. There was a very dramatic moment when, having been out and about for a while, I'd not obsessively lifted the lid to check on the fruit for nearly an hour. When I did, the slightly-grey-looking strawberries visibly shrivelled and collapsed in the time that it took for my glasses to completely steam up.
** I'm fairly sure that they actually were local: the sign had the name of the farm on it....
I suspect that there will be more experimentation in future! I might go and have a look at the apple trees tomorrow, to see what's happening there. (They're annoyingly tucked away in the corner of the garden. Last time I looked was a week ago, when there were a few windfalls on the floor. We don't even know if they're cookers or eaters!)
In other news, today our fencing work finally started: they've ripped out all of the old fencing, and are getting ready to put the new posts in tomorrow. I spent a fun hour out in the field going across the line of the old dividing fence (which we're not replacing: we'll use electric tape to strip graze instead) filling in the holes with A Conveniently Available Organic Material, which the boys helpfully provided.
Although it was a lovely day, and scorchingly hot in the conservatory when we popped in there this afternoon, it's now a bit bloody chilly out here beyond the heat island. I've got to go and give the boys their hay*** in a minutes, and I'm wondering if I should go and get some socks.
*** I finally got around to calling the guy who farms the valley, who had, we think, been ordered to supply us by the Woman Who Owns The Valley. He brought a (round) bale the same day, for us to try, and today we've rearranged the barn so that we'll be able to fit eight of them in, which Mike calculates should be very nearly, if not actually, enough to see us through.
The first try was my standard ginger-and-lemon cordial, which I usually make in the stock pot and then steam. There was something of a fail on my part, when the juice slowly seeped out onto the kitchen counter, where it pooled in the window: after much washing and wiping to de-stickify things, I ended up with about a (litre) bottle of juice, when I would normally make four bottles with the same ingredients. Even without the leak, I suspect that it would only have made a couple of bottles at best. It wasn't nearly as gingery as with the other method, but you could taste the honey much more when it hadn't been simmered to death.
Next up, I got Mike to get a couple of bags of plums with the veg box*. They made a very, very purple juice that didn't taste desperately of plums.
* Gosh, but we're eating a lot of veg. I suspect that Mike might struggle a bit when Brassica Time comes, but so far we're enjoying it, and the add-on fruit really is very good. Does anyone have any cucumber suggestions? Mike loathes it, I'll eat it if it's in my sandwich but wouldn't add it voluntarily. I suppose I'll have to pickle them, or something? (We're only allowed two do-not-wants, and we've taken them with cauliflower -- my least favourite brassica -- and celery -- which even I will pick out if it's not rude to do so.)
Today, having yesterday passed a stall in Canterbury that was selling two punnets of local** strawberries for £2.50, I tried those out. I got about a bottle and a third of juice from them, and I think it's lovely: Mike's not so keen, but then he doesn't like the taste of cooked strawberries, and I do. There was a very dramatic moment when, having been out and about for a while, I'd not obsessively lifted the lid to check on the fruit for nearly an hour. When I did, the slightly-grey-looking strawberries visibly shrivelled and collapsed in the time that it took for my glasses to completely steam up.
** I'm fairly sure that they actually were local: the sign had the name of the farm on it....
I suspect that there will be more experimentation in future! I might go and have a look at the apple trees tomorrow, to see what's happening there. (They're annoyingly tucked away in the corner of the garden. Last time I looked was a week ago, when there were a few windfalls on the floor. We don't even know if they're cookers or eaters!)
In other news, today our fencing work finally started: they've ripped out all of the old fencing, and are getting ready to put the new posts in tomorrow. I spent a fun hour out in the field going across the line of the old dividing fence (which we're not replacing: we'll use electric tape to strip graze instead) filling in the holes with A Conveniently Available Organic Material, which the boys helpfully provided.
Although it was a lovely day, and scorchingly hot in the conservatory when we popped in there this afternoon, it's now a bit bloody chilly out here beyond the heat island. I've got to go and give the boys their hay*** in a minutes, and I'm wondering if I should go and get some socks.
*** I finally got around to calling the guy who farms the valley, who had, we think, been ordered to supply us by the Woman Who Owns The Valley. He brought a (round) bale the same day, for us to try, and today we've rearranged the barn so that we'll be able to fit eight of them in, which Mike calculates should be very nearly, if not actually, enough to see us through.
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I've been racking my brains for things-with-cucumber-that-don't-taste-of-it, and -- for such a mild flavour -- there really aren't many.
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I've (after a brief spell of shouting across the field this morning) left them on the neighbours' doorstep. I'm fairly sure that her bemusement did indicate a liking of it....
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(Shouldn't you have been on a plane?)
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We decided not to
spend my birthday on a planego to Worldcon this year. Texas is hot and dull, and the con didn't sound like it was going to be worth it when we've just moved house.no subject
Cost me a whole fiver (I had vouchers from a horribly delay on my last journey Down Saaath back in December) but even without vouchers, it would have been under £50, and 4 to 5 hours each way, which is cheaper and faster than driving, remind me of this for future visits.
FF
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(If it is, are we picking you up at Ashford or Canterbury? The former may be quicker even with slightly longer driving time, I'm not sure.)
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FF
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I wonder if the horses would like it...? We've got two small ones in the fridge, I may give it a try!
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Personally I'd recommend swapping back in the celery. Celery's sort of essential for lots of Italian cooking, and the classic trick is to cut it up so fine that it leaves no trace in the sauce. You might find that if you string it carefully you don't find it so objectionable, too. Cauliflower out of our organic boxes this summer has mostly been graffiti or romanescu, both of which are vastly better than your boring white cauli.
Brassicas are the *best*. Chop them up fine (spot a trend here) and add them to soup. Or stir fry them. Or put them in curries or lasagna.
Weirdly, after the week where the Wholegood Uber Veg box left us so overprovisioned I made piccalilli, this week it looks like we're going to run out of everything except red cabbage (very difficult in midsummer because of my tendency to associate it with Scouse).
Steven spent much of this afternoon trimming next door's apple tree to prevent it from damaging our shed, and brought a large bowl of apples back with him. "They're cookers", explained the next door neighbour. "They're eaters", explained Jonathan, well-known lover of sour fruit. Nevertheless, I plan rosehip and apple jelly if there are any left tomorrow.
Sorry, bit of a long comment...
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I had a poke at the apple trees this afternoon, thinking I'd make juice in the steamer and feed the windfalls to the horses, but there were hardly any windfalls and Mike declared the ones on the tree to be not yet quite ready.
The flurry of bunnies dashing away as I approached probably explains the lack of windfalls....
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The trick with your windfalls will be to nip out at 5pm each day before the bunnies come out.
My big foraging hope for this week is that the interiors shop on Orford road said 'please come along Friday morning and take figs away'. So we'll see. There's also a chance of cheap figs on the market which would be just as good.
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