Bramble-Tip Wine

I totally forgot to do this yesterday, so after mowing the lawn this evening, I've transferred the bramble-tip wine (pint of bramble tips, steeped overnight, boiled for fifteen minutes, poured onto sugar, yeast added when cooled, and sat for ten days) into a demi john. It smells surprisingly enticing: I'm looking forward to trying it in a few months.

Nettle Cordial

The days started with some weeding, and my finishing off the shed-boxes (needed to add weather strips inside the last two boxes' doors, and paint the floor of the one which has the lawnmower in, as this will often be a bit damp). I also added some extra strings to the willow-less legume frames, as they're starting to get going.

Even though we planted out a great number of things earlier, we still have a lot of small plants growing on, mostly around the greenhouse, or on the weed membrane near the kitchen. Today we managed to plant out a number of these—but there are still lots of pots left! It takes many, many plants to fill half an acre, it turns out.

Into the long border have gone several astrantia (A. major, A. minor, A. maxima, as well as a variegated form from my parents' garden—it might be A. major 'Sunningdale Variegated'); a few trios of coreopsis; some more of our seed-grown Stipa tenuissima; and some geums.

More geums, and some mixed achillea, went into the bed on the games lawn side of the septic tank, to balance it with the other side (the geums there are doing marvellously, and look good set against the new green background of the sheds.

A few spare achilleas, and then some campanulas, aquilegias (Magpie and Royal Purple), and lupins (mixed, hopefully nice colours!) went into the two beds around the sweet peas that aren't looking so good (the back one of the three is pretty good, but the others' wildflowers didn't germinate well.

We also had three little dicentra (with rather darker, single-colour flowers: we're not much taken with the pink & white normal form, but this one, and the all-white we already have, are much more to our taste), which have gone in the copse bed.

A bunch of hardy fuchsias (Hawkshead, Delta's Sarah, and Army Nurse), have been potted up, along with a dozen box cuttings, a number of 'Tail Feathers' grass (Pennisetum macrourum), rose campion, and other achilleas.

Over lunch, we moved the elderflower wine into demi-johns (adding yeast nutrient), and also bottled the nettle cordial which we started a week ago. It looks a brighter colour than last time.

Nettle cordial straining (© Ian 2014)

We had hoped to move a load of chippings onto the weed membranes, but only managed about ten barrow-loads, because first we had raspberries and courgettes to pick. The raspberries are doing much better this year, probably because they've been well mulched last year and this, and we got the pruning right last August. The courgettes are just starting to form: it seems earlier than last year. I think we just about had them in mid/late July, so it's earlier than that. The plants seem to be fruiting at a smaller size, too: I don't know how much of all this is down to the variety (Defender), which is new to us.

It's been a good weekend for cat company: they've been much in evidence.

Hungry cat (© Ian 2014)

A number of seedlings are growing on well, including these dierama, which I'm looking forward to having.

Dierama (RHS seed) two weeks ago... (© Ian 2014)

...and now (© Ian 2014)

Odd Jobs

Today—as Wednesday will be, I expect—has mostly been little jobs. Liz has finished 'weeding' the orchard, and I've cut paths through the grass. That leaves things flowering (which looks good), and takes less time (also good), while looking deliberate and allowing easier access to the trees and clearings.

I've topped up the chippings on the steps under the greenhouse, and in front of the wood shelter (where they were getting weedy, and decomposing). That's let us re-stack a load of wood, delivered last week, more neatly on the drive. We'll need to spend a day next weekend sawing, splitting, and stacking, though.

The greenhouse is finally sorted, and we've potted a load of things into proper pots, and laid them out on the new 'patio' outside the dining room. That needed levelling, before pots would be stable, and that's done. We need a new load of chippings to spread on the membrane, so that it looks a little less artificial.

We've also been able to collect enough flowers to start 2 gallons of elderflower wine, as well as (yesterday) bramble tips (the first 4" of brambles) for a gallon of wine (a new one for us, to make up for missing the dandelions). The bramble tips steep in hot water overnight, and then get simmered for fifteen minutes (over lunch), before straining the liquor onto sugar (I'll add yeast before I go to bed). The elderflowers have boiling water poured on them, along with sugar; yeast will be added in the morning.

Floor Finished

We made a list on Saturday morning of some things we wanted to try to do this weekend (a long one). Pleasing progress has been made, although, as it ever was, not quite everything happened.

Painting the last section (3/8ths) of the garage floor with bituminous sealant happened on Friday evening, Saturday lunch time, and Sunday morning. The plan was that the last coat (Sunday first thing) would then have a clear 24 hours to dry before we put the rest of the floor down.

Saturday morning, before we could do the second coat, we spent digging over a further section of knot garden. While I cut turves, and dug over the stony ground, Liz was busy clearing our stone dyke from last time. We've not worked on extending the herb garden since September, in order to get the overwintering alliums in the ground, so it's nice to once more make progress on it. Although we only did a couple of hours work (too hot!), we returned to the garden on Sunday, and have marked out anew the pattern. We needed to do this because we've changed our mind about the size of the squares (diamonds), which we decided were too small (roughly 1m edges), and needed to be 50% bigger. There wasn't quite enough space in them to allow planting, but still be able to walk through them.

The original (rough) plan for beds and edges in the herb garden (© Ian 2013–14)

That also means we'll only have two sorts of edge: lavender and step-over apples (which I'll try to graft over the winter). The box will be grown on to form box balls in the garden, instead of hedging: we think they might, for one thing, replace some of the Lady's Mantle that's really a weed in the long border. They'd occupy the same niche, of a rounded green mass, but with the advantage of year-round structure, and less invasive self-seeding.

The new pattern fits around the corner nicely, and finishes in about the same place, which is good. We then moved the part-painted climber supports into the beds, settling on a layout that has the taller of these forming a backdrop to the garden, in the boxes furthest from the house. There are only four of these at the moment, but I can always make more in time. The smaller are nearer the house, and there are squares that suitably frame views from the windows with supports. It looks very pleasing, and once the supports are painted, and sunk into the ground, I hope it's going to look really good.

On Saturday afternoon, we constructed a hinged roof that goes over the steps down into the wet cellar from the driveway, which will allow us to store bikes on the steps but keep the worst of the weather off them. It's a simple wooden frame, with tongue and groove cladding, but it looks quite smart...although it does draw my attention to the falling-apart (non-structural!) wall next to it, which edges the pathway. Another day's work there, I think. At the same time, Liz cleared the driveway of a pile of apple prunings that have been sat there drying: they'll be rather fragrant kindling next winter.

They've been sitting around for longer than they should (by some way, really), but we've bottled the five demijohns of wine that were waiting.

• Dandelion, from May 2013. For whatever reason, the dandelions rather passed me by this May, so I don't have a new batch on the go. This one seems good, though.
• Greengage from October (a more reasonable time-scale). This was slightly fizzy, so I added a Campden tablet, and bottled it a couple of days later. The taste seemed improved, too, after this.
• Elderflower from July: very good, this one.
• Blackberry from September, a predictably dessert-wine red. It was also slightly fizzy, but a tablet and 36 hours rest sorted this out.
• Chardonnay from a kit, in June last year. It's really rather Chardonnay-like!

In the same vein, this evening we've made a five-pint batch of elderflower cordial. Different process to previously: a dozen flowerheads, a pared then sliced lemon, and then a boiling sugar solution poured over them (1 pint water, 1lb10 sugar). You add 2.5tbsp of citric acid, once cool, and allow to sit for 24 hours before bottling.

The batch of cider that we pressed last autumn has, in turn, finally been racked into two demi-johns. It's not tasting quite 'right', but as I understand it, cider often needs a decent maturation period, so I'll bear with it.

Sunday afternoon was spent, largely, making a hatch for the garage loft, and putting up the last of the insulation. Hanging the hatch will have to wait until I've found the right hinges.

Today, then, was spent finishing the garage floor. The sealant paint was nicely dry by mid morning, so we were able to immediately start work on laying the insulation, screwing down the battens, and filling the gaps with solid insulation. The plywood sheets went on with relatively little fuss, so by about 1530 we'd finished. An hour later, and the room was tidied up, rather than having everything stacked into the half that had a floor, and we've even managed to set out the two armchairs we've had stored in a corner since 2009.

Last thing for the weekend was getting some of the preparatory work done for our new patio doors, which arrived on Friday. They're being fitted on Wednesday (including breaking out the hole for them, replacing the garden window in the dining room), and we've done as much fitting of hardware, and so on, as possible.

Autumn Preserving

Last week, I started a batch of greengage wine, which was ready today for straining, sugaring, and inoculating with yeast. Into a demi-john it's gone, with 1.7kg of sugar, yeast and nutrients: it appears from my recipe that this one takes a good while to ferment, and the lower temperatures will probably increase that further. Never mind: it's tucked away in the airing cupboard.

On Sunday night we made a batch of apricot and peach chutney (with, inevitably, apples, onions, spices, and so on, too!), which is probably the last batch of chutneys for this year, having already made Windfall chutney and a date and apple one. The cores and skins joined a bag of frozen lemon halves (which I've been collecting over the last six months: zesting and juicing them, then freezing the 'discard' husks) in a big pan. Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I've strained them, and made the juice into Compost Heap Jelly (450g sugar per 600ml juice).

That was last night: tonight has been the turn of rosehip and apple jelly. Another batch of apples were cooked down, and pushed through a sieve. 300ml rosehip syrup (from two years ago!) and 600ml of apple 'sauce', meaning 900g of sugar: cooked to 104°C, and jarred.

Netting

Our visit to Tatton Park was bracketed by days at home, which we mostly spent outside, of course. Saturday was dominated by going over the hillside with the brushcutter, cutting the grass, and removing or weakening as much of the brambles, gorse, rush-grass, and ragwort as possible. It's hot and hard work, but the hillside is definitely showing improvement. This time last year, it would have been tricky to get to the two 'best' apple trees, and barely possible to get to the other three or so—and impossible to reach the track up into the middle levels or hill-top.

Now, the orchard is easy to walk around, and the main clearing of the middle level is accessible. The bracken there, which I've now cut down three times, is still coming up, but not strongly. By comparison, the bracken on the other side of the wall, and further along the hill, where I've not done anything, is six feet tall, and impenetrable.

I have to confess that we saw a rather fine summer house at Tatton Park, one of the Malvern Collection. It's a few years off, yet, though, but it was very nice, and would be a lovely, secluded hideaway on the hillside.

Enough of that. Otherwise, on Saturday, I checked that the newly installed sprinkler on the woodstore's green roof is working, and established that my beer is ready for barrelling. The chardonnay I started at the same time, incidentally, is in the cellar clearing, and is probably ready for bottling. The dandelion is slowly clearing, having finished its vigorous fermentation; the elderflower is on a warm windowsill, bubbling furiously.

Monday was more varied, although we had to contend with showers. The butterfly netting is now up, covering the two plantings of brassicas (which replaced the alliums in the Q-bed, and the early potatoes up one arm of the C-bed). The sprouts, kale, cauliflowers, purple sprouting, and swedes have all settled in fine, and the rows of 'Golden Ball' turnips we sowed at the same time have germinated well.

We discovered a pot of leeks, which hadn't been planted out, so we filled a few gaps in the rows of leeks where tiny seedlings hadn't transplanted (only about three of thirty, and those three were properly tiny), and put the rest in spaces among the autumn onions. The earliest of these, Early Fen, looks like it's nearly ready. On a similar note, the garlics (Germidour) and summer onions (Radar), which are drying in the wood shelter, are coming along nicely.

We've found that we've been losing a lot of courgettes before they get to a sensible size, rotting from one end. On investigation, I think it's where the flower has started to rot, and this has spread into the fruit. To combat this, I'm going to try to remove the flower as soon as it's gone over, and let the fruit swell. Jenny & Philip are away, so we're also picking their fruit and veg (and sweet peas!), which means we're inundated with courgettes.

The hanging baskets, which we tried with dangling nasturtiums for the first time, are looking splendid: I must get a photo of the front of the house. I'm trying to remember to regularly feed them: strangely, the two on the front of the house proper (rather than on the porch extension) are doing less well, though they get more light (marginally).

Once that, and some weeding, was all done, we spent a little while clearing some spaces for our flower show purchases, before going in for lunch. This afternoon I've spent preparing David and Anne's wedding present: but more on that after their wedding...

Elderflower Wine

We would have done this last week (which is closer to previous years batches), but my trip and then going to Cambridge made it hard to fit in, so we've had to delay until today before brewing a batch of elderflower wine. While I mowed the lawn and watered, Liz cut all the flowers off a big bowl of elderflower blossom, and after dinner, I set it off. That entails pouring a gallon of boiling water over the flowers, and adding 250g of chopped raisins, 1.5kg of sugar, the juice of three lemons, and a splash of strong tea (for tannin). In the morning, I'll add yeast and yeast nutrient: next Monday, I'll strain it into a demi-john.

Kitchen Garden Paths

Long planned, but never accomplished: since building the vegetable and fruit beds (during 2010, with the last vegetable bed completed March 2011), the paths have been left as grass. The buttercups, dandelions, and grass growing along them have made the paths difficult during the late summer, and the mud has been awful when it's wet (which is, frankly, often).

We quite quickly established that we needed to put down weed-suppressant membrane and chippings, in order to help with both of these problems—and then promptly spent two years bemoaning not getting round to it.

I said, last August, that we hoped to get round to the paths, intending at the time to get it done during our usually productive autumn phase of work, which didn't happen (I think the wood shelter and hillside intervened, probably reasonably).

But lo! We've got it done. Taking advantage of the warm and dry weather, we decided we had to get it done before it got wet (it'd be a horribly muddy job, if the ground's sodden, à la the hillside trenches). I bought a mattock head for the pick-axe a couple of weeks ago, hoping that it would make this sort of work easier, and it's worked really well for cutting the banked sides of the paths off, so that the ground's more level. It's incredible how much soil has built up against the raised beds, which must have furrowed out from the path centre (where the wheelbarrow tracks, I suppose).

The paths cleared, we then worked along wedging woven weed suppressing fabric along all the paths (we ran out of woven stuff with the two shortest paths left (between the bottom raspberry bed and the two beds to either side), but they're the lowest-traffic paths (hence leaving them 'til last, as I knew we weren't flush with membrane!). They've been done with the slightly less tough non-woven fabric (which I used under the woodshelter), which I think will cope with the low wear, though I wanted the polypropylene woven material for the main tracks.

We probably don't have enough chippings to cover the paths, but that's 'easily' sorted, as we can order a truckload as soon as the drive's clear.

That was the other part of the weekend's work, splitting a couple of tons of wood. The driveway is, therefore, rather more clear.

Lastly, we planted a delphinium (picked up cheap last week while buying the border tools), astrantia, aquilegia, and three schizostylis that we bought earlier in the year. They've all been in pots, but there were clear spaces in the long border, so in they went. The border tools have proved useful!

In other news: on Friday I started a batch of 'Harvest Mild' beer and chardonnay, both from kits. They both claim to only take a few weeks, which is, I suppose, plausible if it stays warm.

Coming Into Leaf

The weather's been kind for the long weekend, meaning we've been able to get out all three days. Saturday and Sunday morning were both spent sawing, splitting, and stacking firewood, which isn't particularly noteworthy.

We spent a lot of time weeding the top bank, which is now looking immeasurably better: there are going to be dozens of foxgloves, soon, and hopefully the whole bank will look good. We planted a couple of dozen white cosmos ('Purity') that we've grown from seed, too.

I weeded around the Japanese quince while Liz began this weeding, pulling out about three trugs full of nettles and goosegrass. To start with, I cut the tips off the nettles, and started a batch of nettle cordial, using these, later in the day.

In the kitchen garden, I've overhauled the irrigation system, which is now ready to use once more (if we get warm, dry weather for any length of time!). The green roof is now well into germination, and seedlings abound. Today we planted out the five courgette plants, each under a plastic cloche. None of the curcubits we planted last year came to anything at all, so we're both hoping for a better crop this year.

The front garden received a lot of attention this morning, and we took out several trugs of weeds and rubbish from the paving, planted wall, and beds. The ivy needs cutting back (and the Virginia creeper needs more support wires, and the hanging basket that fell of that wall needs re-hanging), but they'll wait for another day. We need to replace a few things in the wall, where the plants have been overgrown by grass: possibly some dianthus we have growing from seed.

Most pleasingly, we uncovered loads of little hellebore seedlings under the acer, which I've carefully transplanted, so we now have forty tiny hellebores in a module tray. Of course, they'll take about three years to flower, but there you go.

While in the front garden, I lifted the slab in front of the gate, which was rather sunken, and have lifted it by a couple of inches: it's now level with the paving, and less of a step down from the lane.

We also went up onto the hillside. The deer/rabbit damaged stems of the Scot's pines are now all pruned out, and I've sprayed all the pines with animal repellent. A few of the fruit trees have had second ties added, further up the stem, to stop them rubbing. All the trees have now, finally, come into leaf (the walnuts are lagging slightly, but are on the way). James Grieve is in flower, as is the 'Spring Glow' plum. Only one of our established (anonymous) apples is in bloom (one next door, in Peter and Sara's plot, is), but almost all the others are in bud. Just one doesn't appear to be, yet.

As has been reported elsewhere, the cold winter and late spring means that there's a lot of blossom, so we're hopeful of a bumper crop from the established trees, and maybe a few fruits from the new plants.

I cut down several of the hawthorns that were between the apples: it's looking as though we'll be able to find space for up to another ten trees, once the hawthorns, blackthorn, and scrub is fully cleared, so we're making a start on removing this, so we can get a proper picture of the space available. I'm going to try to get out with Sigrid to clear some of the bracken and brambles this coming week, as we have visitors at the weekend, who will want to look 

Lastly: the dandelion wine, which I finished on Thursday, is now sat, bubbling away beautifully. I'm hoping to start a batch of beer, and maybe some nettle wine, in the next week or so.

Christmas Decorations

Fireplace Swag (© Ian 2012)

We've spent most of the weekend putting up the Christmas decorations. This necessitated a trip up the hillside, to collect the holly for making the swag, putting in vases, and doing the stairs' handrails. We bulked this out with conifer from the garden (which is easier to make into a swag), and holly (for the kissing bough and wreath). It's all looking rather good, and decidedly seasonal. We don't have a 'proper' Christmas tree, having decided to do without while our Scot's pines grow. However, I did find two attractive boughs of silver birch, which I spray painted white, and are standing in. Actually, I really like it, and we might keep it for a second tree in future years.

Atypical Christmas tree (silver birch branches, sprayed white) (© Ian 2012)

We also cooked one of the Wiltshire cure hams we made in September. This was a more complex recipe than the previous salting, and included treacle and beer. It was definitely worth it, though: the ham was delicious.

I also unveiled the ginger wine I'd made some time ago for Liz's birthday, and it is, apparently, really tasty. I still think it smells horrible, though.

Elderflower Champagne

Funnily enough, it's exactly the same date that I made elderflower wine two years ago. Having so enjoyed that batch, but wanting to branch out, this time I've made more: about three gallons.

• 500ml of elderflowers (roughly trimmed from the stalks, and loosely pressed into the measuring jug)
• 1.5kg sugar
• 250g of chopped raisins/sultanas
• 4.5l boiling water
• 2-3 lemons' juice
• yeast nutrient & yeast

Tripled, in this case, but those are the quantities for one demi-john. One puts all the ingredients except the yeast into the bucket, and leaves it until it's about (or no warmer than) 20–25°C, when the yeast is added (tomorrow morning, realistically). I'm using Gervin GV3, which copes with higher alcohol content, and ferments well in the 12–30°C range, which is roughly what it will experience: it's also designed for sparkling wine.

That's because, this time, when the hydrometer reckons that the specific gravity has dropped to 1.010, I'm going to syphon off several bottles for transforming into champagne. I've been stockpiling strong/fizzy drink bottles of about 1l, specifically for this purpose: I'm planning about six bottles of champagne, and will leave the rest to become 'normal' wine.

Of course, last year's elderflower wine has only just been bottled, but these things take time, and we're out of 2010 vintage.

Syphoned

A big bottling session! The elderflower rosé, the elderflower, and hedgerow port have all been bottled: about half a dozen bottles of each, with some leftovers. The elderflower is good; the rosé and port need to mature a little, I think.


That leaves the dandelion wine fermenting in the airing cupboard, and the Demi-John That Must Not Be Named hidden elsewhere. In the next few weeks I'll get some more elderflower going: the trees aren't quite ready yet, though.

Surprise Brewing

Little does Liz know, but I have started a surreptitious batch of ginger wine. I don't like ginger wine (or various other ginger derivatives: my personal nightmare dish is melon with parma ham and ginger), but she's fond of it. Because of the asymmetry, we never buy any, so I thought I'd make her some for her birthday. It's safe for me to discuss it here, as she never visits. Touch wood.

It's a little more involved than some, but quite straightforward. Peel and roughly chop 200g of root ginger into a slow cooker, and add 600g of sugar and the zest of three lemons. Add about 2.5l of boiling water to the pot. 'Cook' overnight. Pour into a demijohn (a bucket would do), and allow to cool to 25–30°C. Add yeast (I used GV3, and added vitamin B tablets and yeast nutrient) and pectolase. Leave it for 24 hours, then add the juice of those three lemons.

Thereafter, stir (agitate) daily for a fortnight. At that point, I'll strain it into a clean demijohn, add 400g of sugar, 350g of chopped raisins, and another 50g of ginger (probably grated). That will ferment for a further ten days.

At this point, you need to bring the fermentation to a halt, while there's still some sugar. It'll need straining again, and this time a Campden tablet and a few grams of potassium sorbate get added. It should clear in a couple of weeks, when 150ml of brandy gets added, and I'll make it up to a gallon. I'll bottle it into 75cl quantities, and it'll then go in the cellar for a couple of months (or longer).

Hopefully, it'll be tasty—though I may not think so personally.

Less secretively, we also started a nettle cordial. This, by contrast, is shockingly simple. Collect nettle tops (the top 3 pairs of leaves), wash and spin dry, and put in a covered container. Add 1kg sugar, 500ml boiling water, and 40g citric acid. That's done: it now gets stirred daily for five days, at which point it will hopefully be delightful. It is, in fact, already smelling pretty good (hint of gooseberry, I think), and the liquid's going slightly pink. Results, as you'd expect, will follow.

Dandelion Wine

A relatively uneventful weekend, but I did start a batch of dandelion wine. This meant cutting 450g of dandelion heads (this is lots, I now know), and pouring 4.5l of boiling water over them. That was Saturday: today, I've poured the juice into the preserving pan, added the peel of four oranges, and boiled for ten minutes, before straining the liquid over 1.5kg of sugar in a demijohn. I'll add the yeast when it's cooled, and it should clear in the autumn, ready to drink around Christmas.

Dandelion flowers for brewing (© Ian 2012)

I also planted forty anemones (de Caen and St Brigid) into pots. The anemones we planted straight into the ground around the trees in autumn 2009 never came up, but this year some of those in the front wall did: they went in in 2010, so it took two winters for them to show up. By doing these into pots, I'm hoping to keep track of them more readily, and hope that they will be quicker. Instead of soaking them for a day, which is the advice, I actually soaked them for four. They seemed a lot plumper and happier (and it was possible to tell which way up they belong!), which may also have helped.

I used some of the leaf mould we collected in 2010, and it is lovely. The 2011 leaves are still in bin liners, waiting to go in the wire cages, and the 2010 leaves have broken down into a wonderful compost. It's really light, rich, and nice to work. Excited about compost? Ah, well.

Sous Vide Venison

On Friday/Saturday, we were visiting Katherine in Cambridge, who took us to eat at High Table at Pembroke College. I've not eaten so well in years. It was a fantastic menu, in a beautiful setting, and we had a great time.

The menu:

Pea and Coconut Velouté with a Coconut Foam

Smoked Salmon & Mozzarella Terrine

Venison with Caramelized Red Cabbage, Château Potatoes, and a Game Jus

Chocolate Fondant with Peanut Butter Ice-cream and Cumin Caramel

And we then retired to the fellows' parlour for artisan cheese and biscuits (a phenomenally good blue brie-type cheese, a really strong cheddar, something like a parmigiana, and a goat's cheese I didn't try), fruit, and chocolates, with a good port, a lovely Riesling, and a claret.

Pembroke's chef maintains a blog, Under Pressure at Pembroke, which depicts some of these lovely dishes. The sous vide cooked venison was the best venison I've had. I'm still revelling in it all.

We also, inevitably, had a wander: the Backs outside Trinity are looking good, although the crocuses aren't quite out yet.

Aconites outside Trinity College Cambridge (© Ian 2012) 

The Backs and Trinity College (© Ian 2012)

Back home on Saturday, and we've spent today cutting and sawing a load of wood Calderdale council dropped off. We already have too much wood to process, you might say. I'd agree: but we wanted to check this as a possible supply of biomass for wood central heating. Not bad, but not brilliant, in fact; quite a lot of softwood, and some stuff that was a real pain to split.

First Stages

A fairly productive weekend, mostly spent in the kitchen, preparing the first stages of several preserving recipes!

Yesterday we mixed up the ingredients for a 6lb batch of mincemeat, using the new apple crop. It's really well in advance—we made the mincemeat for this Christmas back on New Year's Eve, so the batch from this weekend will only be used Christmas 2012. As before, it's the Gary Rhodes/Delia Smith recipe, modified to go in the slow cooker for six hours (rather than a low oven for several). That happened today, after the ingredients had sat overnight, and the result is magnificent. It's filled the kitchen with Christmas spiciness whenever we stirred it. Brandy (blackberry) will be stirred in tomorrow, when it's jarred.

In a break between showers, we nipped out to planted the over-wintering alliums. About 45 'Germidour' garlic, a dozen elephant garlic, and 110-odd Summer Gold overwintering onions. Before planting them, I dug in a few trugs of compost. Alongside, we've sown a few rows of White Lisbon overwinter spring onions, in the hope of an earlier crop of scallions.

It was dry first thing today, so we quickly gathered a kilo of elderberries, to combine with blackberries, damsons, and bilberries from the freezer to make a spiced berry cordial. It's about 50% elderberries, 25% blackberries, 20% damsons, and 5% bilberries, to a total of 3kg. To make the cordial, we've made up to 4.5l with hot water, and boiled it down to 3l (that is, reduced by a third). I'm leaving it overnight, and in the morning, I'll stir in some pectolase (to break down the fruit and release the juices). Once squeezed through muslin, the juice can be sweetened and spiced, and then bottled.

We also cooked up a big bag of citrus fruit hulls, and apple peelings (tasty sounding, no?): these have been collected over several months and frozen, and include the slices of orange and lemon that went into the elderflower cordial (and a few elderflowers). Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I'll squeeze this tomorrow as well, and then make it into jelly.

Lastly—and lately—I strained the hedgerow wine that I started a week ago. The pulp (sloe, elderberry, blackberry), in a gallon of water, has been fermenting since Monday, with the aid of pectolase and yeast nutrient, and has now been squeezed onto 1.3kg of sugar in a demi-john. Fermentation, predictably, has picked up a notch.

Chutney, Jam, and Wine

Having collected the apples on Thursday, we've got on with making this year's chutney. We enjoyed the Grandma's Hot Apple Chutney we tried last year, so we did a double batch of that (12 jars). Instead of the basic apple chutney, we made a batch of the National Trust's Windfall Chutney (not with windfalls, but never mind), which was another 8 jars. A statutory batch (5 and a half jars) of mango chutney (another 850g tin of kesar mango puree!) followed; I think the spice blend worked better. We then tried a spiced elderberry chutney (cooked and sieved berries), which is extremely purple-red (5 jars). The Windfall Chutney has a couple of tablespoons of turmeric in, so that's rather yellow, making this years jars quite colourful: the Grandma's Hot is quite molasses-y, the Windfall is yellow, the mango orange, and the elderberry strongly anthocyanin!

We'll do a round of mincemeat next weekend (it requires an overnight steep of the ingredients), which will use more apples—the rest will be eaten as they are, or made into puree for cooking or eating.

One of our neighbours was given a large quantity of greengages, which were surplus to her requirements, so she gave us a few kilos. As a result, we've tried a new recipe, for greengage and almond jam. The greengages defrosted brown (they went in green), but it doesn't appear to have mattered. They also didn't require stoning before cooking, contrary to some instructions—though that did mean Liz had to keep vigilant watch for stones while to cooked, fishing them out as they floated. It's very tasty, and reminiscent of a marvellous gooseberry jam we made some years ago. Not too sweet, with a good 'plum' flavour.

To round off the preserving weekend, I started a batch of Hedgerow Port: elderberry, sloe, and blackberry wine. Nothing unusual: 800g blackberries, 300g sloes, and 400g elderberries, crushed, with 4.5l of boiling water poured over them. I added some pectolase once it'd cooled a bit, and yeast will go in tomorrow. The must'll ferment for four-five days, and then I'll strain it onto sugar in a demi-john.

The elderflower and elder rosé wines look like they've slowed considerably, so fermentation may be nearly complete. I'll probably leave them for another few weeks, then rack them.

Pottering

It's been nearly eighteen months since I posted about my last weekend like this. Once again, Liz had to work, which left me to get on with bits and pieces.

I've sanded down our wooden chopping boards (including the large piece of worktop cut out for the draining sink), and (re-)oiled them. They've all needed doing for a little while, but I'd not got round to it. The biggest one (the new one) is rather large, and pretty heavy, as the worktop is dense oak, but quite attractive. The two biggest will come in very helpful when chutney making, which is always demanding of space.

I made a passing attempt at fixing the light above the bathroom basin (which has been flickering, and giving a disco-esque feel to the room; strobe lighting is not ideal when shaving). I've not been entirely successful, as I think a tube or igniter is going. Still; it's improved.

I re-weeded the vegetable beds (well, some of them): the onions needed doing, although they're much better than at the end of May, and I attacked the celeriac, leeks, and salad leaf bed while I was at it. The celeriac are growing well, and I will soon need to be watching for side-shoots forming: these need to be pinched out.

The lawn needed mowing, as it's been about ten days, so I've done my bit to help fill the compost heap. On the same note, I turned all three, and watered them, as they seemed a bit dry.

The fruit beds have been a bit swamped by unexpected potatoes that have sprouted from tubers left behind last year. These are a nuisance, and can't be helping the fruit bushes, so I've cut off all the foliage. With the haulms gone, the tubers should 'set', and be ready for lifting next weekend. I think we've got enough new potatoes (the Lady Christl and Rocket are still doing fine, and we're getting an average of a kilo per plant), so doing it this way means they should store. To that end, I've left the hessian sacks soaking in a bucket of weak bleach for a couple of hours, to make sure they're sterile.

As I've now pulled up nine Lady Christl, and three Rocket, I had space to put in twelve of the Orla and Vivaldi. These two (a first and second early, respectively) have been waiting in the wings (chitting in the study) while the first planting went in at the start of April. One can purchase 'second cropping' seed potatoes for new potatoes at Christmas—the producer holds them in optimal conditions, and they get to you about now. I wanted to try it myself (not least because the tubers are twice as expensive if they're second croppers), hence the waiting period in the study. The first dozen are, then, now in the ground, and hopefully will provide us with new potatoes in a couple of months.

Another pound or two of strawberries, a bowl of mini-peas, and a few beetroot all contributed to the weekend's food. The beetroot turned into a tasty hummus (courtesy of Hugh Fearlessly Eats-it-all).

It was also time to put the elder wine into a demi-john. Now, I had hoped that this wine—a blend of elderberry and elderflower—might oblige me by being a rosé. No such luck. The anthocyanins in elderberries are obviously quite robust, and the wine is definitely red. It may, I suppose, lighten, but it's unlikely to become a rosé. Never mind: the taste will be more important.

Swelling Fermentation Bucket

Just a quick note to record that the fermentation bucket full of elder rosé is starting to get going. The sealed lid is swelling, which means the yeast is busily converting sugar to carbon dioxide—and alcohol. At the weekend, I shall strain the must into a demi-john, and add the rest of the sugar. Half went in to the bucket (the 'elderflower' half); the second 750 g is for the 'elderberry' part of the wine.

We'll have to see whether this approach works!

Summer House Party

We hosted a repeat of the post-Christmas get-together this weekend, with the same friends travelling up on Friday, and staying until today. Sadly, Katherine was struck down by a stomach bug, and couldn't make it, but Robert joined us this time (he couldn't make it in January). As before, much food was consumed and eaten, and we also enjoyed games of croquet and boules outside (the glorious weather held), and Twaddle and Chinese Chequers inside, as well as a walk on Saturday.

Everyone had left by early afternoon, and we've made the most of the last bit of holiday. A bit of tidying in the kitchen garden yielded a few trays of currants, and a kilo of strawberries, as well as a half-dozen carrots and a bowl of sugar-snap-size peas (they're not a mange tout/sugar snap variety, but we're eating them as such). We then popped out to collect a dozen heads of elderflowers, and set an experimental bucket of wine going: elder rosé. This is something I thought up last autumn and wanted to try, but have had to wait for the elderflowers, having frozen the elderberries I needed. My thinking is that a rosé based on the elderflower and elderberry wine would be interesting, as I find the latter has too much tannin, but the former has, naturally, none.

So, I halved both recipes, and combined them. We'll see what happens.

With the kilo of strawberries, we've tried making an elderflower and strawberry jam. Hazel made jars of this (and about six other jams) as favours at her wedding. It's a nice change from straight-up strawberry jam: hers was a little less sweet, and the floral addition worked really well. It seems to have set well, which I'm really pleased about: hopefully it will also taste good.