makes a change huh?
So what have i been up to so far this week?
I'm not sure what was going on in Monday, I decided not to go collecting fruit after some early damp but then i never really settled to do anything. I did make a summer pudding, something new to my inventory, more on that in a bit.
On to Tuesday and despite a reasonable forecast i didn't really feel much like going for a ride, well maybe an easy, short one? And so i headed over to the coast and across to Clevedon where i stopped for an early 'mucky' burger, a cheese burger with bacon, not a sign of anything healthy! It was too nice a day to just go straight back and my usual return route past the airport didn't appeal much so i came up with plan B.
So much for an easy day, Plan B took me up Burrington Coombe, think a less twisty and narrow Cheddar Gorge, then along the Mendip to the eastern end where it collides with the Cotswolds around Radstock. From there you sort of follow the Fosse Way up to Aquaee Sulis, then it was a variant of the oft ridden Avon valley route back to Brizzle. Yep, the 'easy' day ended up at 115km and over 1k metres of up - oh and an annoying wasp sting.
It was ding meals all round but then it was time for dessert, the summer pudding. Well that was quite the success, almost a healthy pud with all that fruit and no added fats - if you ignore the squirty cream on top! I may well have to make it again, perhaps tweaked a little.
And that beings us to today, blue skies, little wind, i see scrumping in my future! which reminds me, we've cropped a couple of swedes this week and the courgette plant has burst back into production after looking a bit sorry for a few weeks. There are cucumbers coming along too, the onions are a bit small this year but it looks like we'll have another crop of strawberries and raspberries soon. The carrots haven't done well but we will have leeks. Not the most productive year in the garden but hey ho, we have had stuff and the growing beds are not exactly expansive.
I'll be back at the weekend,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
Small Onions?
Perhaps you should try planting them in the Autumn? I plant Onions and Garlic in October and this year, they were bigger than ever. I harvested the last of them a couple of weeks ago.
I've just taken delivery of 20 8inx4inx 2.4m long hardwood sleepers for two raised beds. These will replace two that are falling apart and will provide a deep growing medium for root veggies. I picked a parsnip last weekend. It was almost 50cm long. Like you, my carrots were a disaster this year. Only one germinated.
My neighbours raided (with me permission) my two plum trees on Sunday and took away almost 20kg of plums. Plum jam was being made.
Samantha
todays scrump
included a kilo or so of plums, about the same of quince, 2 kilos of blackberries (these are for freezing, still have 2kg from last week, there are so many and no one picking them). I also got a few figs, quite small but seem to be ripe, we'll see before i scrump any more.
The courgettes have suddenly gone mad, cut one earlier, 4 more coming along nicely! ditto the cucumbers.
Need to get a bit better organised tbh, maybe looking at a small greenhouse affair to get stuff going rather than direct sowing everything.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Do you preserve...
Do you preserve leeks, or are they only for immediate consumption?
Scrumping
Hi Maddy, I think it might be an Idea to explain what Scrumping is,
a lot of folk's in the Southern Hemisphere have never heard of it.
I must say I did a lot of it growing up in the UK. It's fine if it's growing over the fence.
But some get upset when adults reach over to pick the best fruit or nuts.
Polly J