Ahoy, Hoy, as they used to say. What's happened to the Summer? We had a few nice weeks in June, and since then it seems to have been either blowing a hooley (whatever one of them is) or damp and miserable. I'm not complaining too much mind you, (although actually I am), because whilst it's not been the best weather for getting out and about, I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. Plus it's doing wonders for the allotment, and I'm not lugging loads of watering cans full of water about! Saturday morning I ventured out into the gale for a few miles on the bike, nothing to strenuous, just a quick 50 mile blast around the local area, but there's a couple of things of the back of that that are worthy of mention. First and most impressively, I ventured out early in the hope that I would miss the worst of the rain that was forecast for most of the day. I got back home just after 11 and just as I walked up the garden path it started spitting with rain. By the time I'd taken my shoes off, it was throwing it down, and 12 hours later, when I went to bed, it was still raining. Now, I don't seem to have been having much luck recently, but maybe this is a sign that my lucks on the change? The other thing from Saturdays ride is the time of year. Now it's nearly the end of July, and as I slogged along with my head down into the howling head wind, I noticed that lots of the fields alongside my route were still filled with unripe cereal crops, and it occurred to me that none of the farmers have started harvesting yet. Now, this seems to back up my theory that we are a couple of weeks behind on the allotment, and so it would seem are the farmers. In fact checking back through the old blog posts for July 2021 and 2022, shows pictures with harvested fields and straw bales for this very same week. So what does that tell us? Well I don't know, but it does seem to confirm that the summer so far has been pretty miserable, and that my previous ramblings about the growing season being a few weeks behind are probably about right. Taking advantage of the wet afternoon I spent the rest of Saturday making jam. That Redcurrant bush I mentioned last week on the Allotment was absolutely laden with ripe currents, just waiting for picking, which is exactly what I did Friday evening. A couple of hours on the plot in the evening sunshine, yielded just over 3KG of Redcurrants from my single bush. Which I think is pretty impressive, and is certainly the most its ever produced. While I was there, there was plenty of other Veg for the picking too, and I returned triumphantly, with a nice haul to see us through the weekend, including the first of the Tomatoes. I've got to add that homegrown Tomatoes are the best thing ever. They're head and shoulders above those tasteless things you buy in the shops. I'll admit that the skins tend to be a bit tougher, but that's a small price to pay for something that actually tastes like it should do, and if you've only got space to grow one thing, I'd say Tomatoes would be the one, probably followed closely behind by Cucumbers. The next question is what to do with 3KG of Redcurrants? "The Emma" came in from work whilst I was sat in the garden destalking them and said "Oh, Redcurrants, yummy" before grabbing a handful and shovelling them into her mouth. I don't know if you've ever tried Redcurrants but they're up there with the sharpest tasting things on the planet, and it only took a few seconds before the look on her face turned from one of joy at having managed to steal some of my treasure, to a look of horror as the sharpness hit her taste buds. That'll teach her! Currents destalked, washed and cleaned, it was into the pot with a couple of spare apples to extract the valuable juice, as step one of the jam making process (Currents have annoying little pips that don't go well in jam, so the best bet is to get rid of them, and just use the juice, I find raspberries and blackberries to be the same). Apart from an accompaniment to roast meats and a tasty addition to the gravy boat, I never really know what to use Redcurrant jelly for. It's a still a bit too sharp for my tastes to spread on toast, and it doesn't really work in the morning porridge, so as a bit of an experiment I've tried Rhubarb and Redcurrant jam this year, alongside the normal plain Redcurrant jelly. I've no idea what it'll be like, but the initial tastes as I was making it seemed promising, and at the end of the day, what's the worst that will happen? Even if it's horrible I've only wasted a bag of sugar and some time (the most valuable commodity of them all), but even if it's too sharp to eat on toast I'm sure it'll add a bit of taste to the Sunday gravy. Watch this space, and if you never hear from me again, it's probably because the Rhubarb and Redcurrant Jam has been the end of me, I'll be sure to report back either way! Despite managing to hide some of it in the jam, I still had a load of Rhubarb left over and no idea what to do with it. I love it simply stewed with a bit of sugar. The only problem with that being that I'll keep dipping in for another spoonful out of the fridge and come dinner time I'm full of Rhubarb. Casting round for other ideas for using it up, I wondered if it could be dried and preserved? A quick Google, seemed to suggest that it could be, but no one seemed to have any use for it once it had been dried out. There wasn't much point in just dehydrating it so the fun of it, so I wondered what would happen if I added loads of sugar to it prior to dehydrating it? There was only one way to find out, and as before what's the worst that will happen? So Rhubarb finely sliced, covered in a good handful of caster sugar and allowed to stew for a few minutes and then into the dehydrator for 18 hours. "What's the worst that will happen"? In this case nothing. It's a taste sensation is what it is! I don't know how well it'll keep, because it's still quite moist, and being covered in sugar it's a bit sticky, but I don't think that's going to be a problem because I can't keep my fingers out of the jar. The best way I can describe it is like those chewy sugar coated sour sweets you get. It's chewy, with a sweet start from the sugar, then the tartness as the Rhubarb kicks in and floods your mouth with sharpness. If I was trying to replicate chewy, sour sweets from home made ingredients, then this would be as close to perfection as you could get. Beautiful! Right, just before I go. I came home from work one day in the week, to be hit by the most beautiful aroma of flowers as I walked through the gate. Sitting in the garden having a post work brew, it was almost overpowering.
And where was this amazing scent coming from? Well, it didn't take long to track it down to a couple of Lilly's that have just bloomed (although that should probably be "had" by now, as they won't have survived Saturdays rain). It's the little moments and things like that, which make gardening and growing things in general so special in my opinion. It's a years worth of nurturing, tending and growing, but when the flowers come out, or the veg is ready for picking, the rewards, smells, tastes and sights, are just so rewarding. And on that note, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the garden, and sign off for the time being. I'm off to Cardiff tomorrow for "The Boys'" university graduation. That's another one that took a lot of nurturing, tending and growing, but he got there in the end, and as with the flowers, it's just so rewarding to see the finished product!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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