Preserving tomatoes

 I can't get over just how lovely and warm it's been today. Usually by now the temperature is much lower and my garden is starting to look tired. It hasn't happened yet and I'm still picking tomatoes and courgettes by the kilo. We had friends over for a meal last night and I was able to give them plenty of produce from the garden to take home.  This morning I picked a load more tomatoes so I've set them off fermenting. They'll last several months in the fridge and will be lovely on some crusty bread or crackers. Tomorrow, after I've been for a walk with my friends, we're driving over to Northallerton to stock up on coal briquettes for the fire. We'll only be using the stove if we're entertaining as it's far cheaper to leave the heating on low. Tony and I can't stand to be too warm and rarely have the heating higher than 17 degrees in the middle of winter. It keeps the house just comfortable and we set it to 15 through the night. We're big believers in putting an extra layer on if we're a bit cool.

I roasted a big tray of tomatoes then simmered them to remove some of the water.  When they'd reduced down to a thick puree I put them into my silicon tray and dehydrated them till they reduced by half. I froze them then bagged them ready to use as stock cubes.  I've got another batch freezing overnight then I'll add them to the bag.  

And yesterday I pickled a few more jars of the cherry tomatoes.  We had a jar of my previous batch the other day and they were really tasty.

My garden on 3rd September

 Tony and I have been to our folk dance club tonight.  It's the first one since late May and we had so much fun learning new dances. We'll be in Leamington Spa next weekend so we will miss our favourite ceilidh. I could kick myself for not checking the diary before I booked. Oh well, we'll be at a different one the following weekend.  Here's my garden from yesterday morning before we built the arch 

 

Our beautiful arch

 Tony and I have just put this gorgeous garden arch together. I'm amazed he didn't throttle me as I'm utterly useless when it comes to putting this kind of thing together.  I'd have had to take it apart a million times before I eventually got it right. Tony on the other hand just looks at the instructions and knows immediately how to put it together. In my defence, I never played with Meccano as a child 😃 

Isn't chard beautiful

 Although in all honesty it doesn't have a huge amount of flavour, chard is one of my favourite veg to grow.  The stalks are so vibrant and beautiful. They keep their colour when cooked too.  Tossed into a mixed salad and stirred through with a dash of mayonnaise they add so much crunch and colour. Here's what I've just picked this morning. Before going to my carving club last night I picked a nice mixed bag of vegetables for my friend Jim. It's lovely having enough to share with people that appreciate good vegetables. 

It's September already

 I've noticed that the light levels are changing as we head into autumn.  It's dark driving home from carving club now and it won't be too long before it will be dark driving there. I'll be making some big changes in the front garden towards the end of the month. It'll make the space even more productive.  Here's today's harvest.

The grapes are ripening nicely

 I've added a bunch of grapes to this morning's harvest. Unfortunately they aren't seedless but as they're really sweet they get to stay. They have definitely earned their place in our garden 

It's glut season

 My courgette and tomato glut is storming  along. After I did my daily harvest Tony and I popped out to pick up a few things from Sainsbury's. I've seen a lovely chicken escalope recipe that uses crispy onions instead of breadcrumbs. We managed to find the onions in Sainsbury's so watch this space.  Here's the harvest that I pucked this morning. 

When we got back I decided to harvest any tomatoes that looked as though they might split. We'd been forecast heavy rain and I didn't want to lose my tomatoes. Several of the big heavy tomatoes had snapped off so I was pleased that I'd checked the plants.  This little haul weighs in just short of 5kg. Obviously some aren't ripe yet but give them a few days and they'll be lovely. 

I did a bit of research about the cost of organic beefsteak tomatoes.  They average around £10.40 a kilo.  This tray full would have cost me nearly £50 if I had bought them from a supermarket. I made a huge pan of minestrone soup with some of the veggies. It tastes absolutely lovely and there's enough to last a few days.

Tony's new car August 29th

 Someone is a happy man today. 🙂

He picked his new (to us) car up from the garage.  Isn't it a lovely colour

Today's harvest

 Tony has gone to collect his new car and I'm waiting in for my latest Greenstalk planter to be delivered.  I've had a message saying that it'll be delivered today so goodness knows what time that will be. I'm keeping myself busy pottering about in the garden and I've just picked these. The apples and little pears are windfalls. I'll peel them and grate them.There's a small handful each of strawberries and raspberries which  I'll mix with the apples and pears. They'll be a nice addition to a fruit crumble. Three different varieties of courgettes. There's a load of beans and two different varieties of tomatoes 

Eat what you grow

 The garden is going into overdrive as vegetables are ripening faster than I can harvest them. This morning I made two really delicious pasta layered bakes. We had some at lunch time and it was so utterly delicious that we had another portion each for tea. 

I'm currently being tortured with insect bites which I think are caused by ants. They're everywhere this year. Each time I brush past one of the fruit trees I have to brush the little blighters off my clothing and skin. I'm taking an antihistamine to help calm the itch. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working. Tony is collecting our new car tomorrow then we're taking it for a drive out over to Helmsley. We might have lunch out if we find somewhere nice.