Hello everyone. August is galloping by. Won’t be long until the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” begins.
As you can see from my apples I already have some mellow fruitfulness. These aren’t very sweet apples but I shall cook them in various ways. My green cooking apples are falling in the wind and will soon be ready for harvesting. I’ve already used plenty for puddings, cakes and chutney. They are so delicious stewed, stuffed, or baked in my apple and cinnamon squares.
Plums are gradually ripening but won’t be available until early October. Looking lovely on the tree with a slight blush of colour. They’ll be deep purple when they’re ready.
End of summer flowers are pleasing with their lovely colours. Cosmos, phlox, Japanese anemones, rudbeckias and a few late roses.
Wild flowers and weeds creep in and give their own beauty to the garden at this time of year.
I thought the squashes were ready early because the plants appeared to be dying. Just three managed to grow. A wet July and the gnawing attentions of mice put paid to several others. Only one seemed to be ripe and it was bigger than the other two. I cut it free from the plant and put it in the greenhouse to harden up the skin for winter storage. The smaller two need a little longer before I cut them off.
Runner beans, true to their name, are running away with me. So generous that I can’t keep picking before they grow too big. It’s not a problem though because when they swell I remove the kidney beans from the pods and cook those. Although the beans lose their beautiful pink colour when they’re cooked they are really tasty and full of goodness.
The tomatoes are ripe. I was hoping to preserve some in kilner jars but I don’t think there will be enough. I needed some for chutney. They have done well without any problems but the crop isn’t huge. They’re big and beautiful, full of juicy flavour.
At the weekend I made my Dark and Sweet Chutney. This will keep for months so I make plenty. It’s my husband’s favourite. I prefer my Courgette Chutney. A lot of chopping of vegetables but otherwise very easy to make. Both recipes are in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook. There’s also my recipe for piccalilli. Here is the link if you’d like to take a look.
If you only want one recipe, let me know and I will see what I can do.
Time to think ahead in the garden, so I’ve sown cauliflowers, winter lettuce , onions and spring Cabbage. The seeds have germinated and are just poking out of the seed compost.
When they’re ready I will put them into plugs until they’re big enough to plant out in the garden or polytunnel. These onions are very hardy so they’ll be fine outdoors. The lettuce will be in the greenhouse and the caulis and Spring cabbages will be snug in the polytunnel. They’ll grow slowly until February when the days lengthen, then they’ll put on a spurt and be useable a few weeks later.
Indoors I’ve finally got round to doing some painting. I finished my little picture of a neighbour’s tiny Pekin cockerel. It’s nice to hear him showing off to his girls. I managed to snap the photo while he was crowing, showing his open beak. It was difficult to capture the beauty of his silvery feathers. I drew the outline with pencil and pen then coloured the details by painting with gouache.
That’s all for this week. With you again soon. Enjoy the summer while it lasts. Bye for now.