Garden Treasures and Jam Surprises

February holds more promise for longer days and lovely flowers. By the middle of the month there will be noticeable changes in the garden. Snowdrops, crocuses and hellebores will offer welcome colour and signs that Spring is just ahead.

Many of my snowdrops are already nodding their dainty petals and the hellebores are unfolding their lovely flowers. A few pale mauve crocuses have popped up here and there.

My daffodils will be a while so I bought a few. Such a cheerful sight with a few sprigs of euonymus from the garden.

I tidied one of the polytunnels. There were a few tiddler carrots to pull out and the celeriac leaves had flopped over the path so I tidied those away. Good material for the compost bin. I removed any weeds and stirred the surface of the soil a bit. The path was dusty so I swept it. I find it so satisfying when the tunnels are neat and looking productive. Now the beds are ready for some new seeds in a couple of weeks time. I will sow mustard for salad leaves, mangetout peas, lettuces and kohl rabi.

Some of the garlic leaves have shrivelled so they’re not looking as good as I would like. They need a good feed with some comfrey pellets. Must do that soon. The Spring Hero cabbages have a few tiny nibble holes on the outer leaves but they’re fine and will pick up as the weeks go by. These always grow well and are delicious.

In the other tunnel, the last few small leeks needed using so I pulled them out and cooked them. The cauliflowers are small yet but looking healthy. I gave them a liquid seaweed feed to encourage them to grow their white heads when the daylight increases. Will feed them more with some comfrey pellets later on.

While I was working in the tunnel I found two caterpillars. One was bright green and the other was a brown striped one. I think they may be moth caterpillars. I put them in the compost bin where they may have a bit of protection until their next stage of development.

Indoors, things have been happening too. I bought some basil leaves from the supermarket and because they had stems I popped them into water in a yoghurt pot to freshen them and keep them going a bit longer. After a week I noticed lovely little roots had formed at the bottom of the remaining stems so I potted them in a bit of houseplant compost. I removed most of the big leaves and used those but kept tiny new leaves to grow on. It seems to be working. The plants look healthy and have grown a bit.

Every Christmas for the last few years I’ve asked my son to give me an amaryllis bulb as one of my Christmas gifts. This year’s has produced lots of beautiful red flowers. Two stems have four flowers each. I’m so pleased with it. They’re easy to grow providing they’re not over watered and the bulb is standing slightly out of the compost. Such a lovely show.

Last summer we had a good crop of strawberries and I froze lots of them, so while the weather wasn’t too good I thought I’d make jam. I removed 1200g and thawed them overnight. Strawberries have little pectin, the substance which makes jam set, so I always add a few sliced pectin-rich cooking apples.

Usually I find jam making straightforward and not difficult to do but it was “one of those days”!

I removed the apples from the freezer and tipped them into the pan with the strawberries. When they didn’t start to break down I realised I’d added Cox apples instead of cooking apples! Big lumps of apple were floating around in my boiling fruit. I tried chopping into them with a knife. Helped a bit but not entirely successful.

Then I started to tip sugar into the pan, thinking it was a kilo bag and intending to empty it. I suddenly realised it was two kilos! Fortunately I stopped tipping just in time and was relieved that I hadn’t added too much. It wouldn’t have entirely ruined it but I prefer a lot of fruit rather than sugar in my jam. Equal proportions of fruit and sugar are best.

Things don’t always go to plan if I’m not concentrating. It wasn’t a calm kitchen that day but eventually the jam was made and tastes fabulous.

It’s not difficult to make jam if you’re organised and have some basic equipment. It tastes wonderful, far better than bought. I prefer to make jam in winter although it’s traditional to do it when the fruit is cropping. Because I have my own fruit I can freeze it and do it on a horrible winter’s day in my cozy kitchen. Tips for jam making and preserving are in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook which I published after requests from my regular readers. Available from Amazon on https://geni.us/eANQu or from myself.

I haven’t painted for a while. The house is stuffed with my paintings so perhaps it’s just as well. Here’s an old one. Worked from a photograph I took at Arley Arboretum. Drawn with pencil then painted with gouache.

I hope you have flowers in your garden or can enjoy them elsewhere. Bye for now. With you again in a couple of weeks.