The apples are in!

In our garden we have an old, gnarled apple tree. I have no idea how old it is; our house was built in the 1950s on the site of an orchard, so it is quite a venerable specimen. I love it; it provides blossom in spring, shade in summer and apples in autumn. After last year's dire harvest due to bad weather I have been watching with anticipation as the apples have been swelling and growing. 

Yesterday was officially designated apple-picking day! This is a major event for our family. We all join in and take turns with the fruit-picker thingummy jig. Everyone else tries to catch any fallers, or sorts out the good from the bad. This year, maybe because of the late spring, the fruit is good quality but small. Between us we managed to pick 25kg of fruit and we left quite a lot for the birds.

So now the fun begins! During the week I bravely defrosted the freezer ready for the onslaught of stewed fruit. Some fruit has gone to our long-suffering neighbours, but there is only so much I can palm off onto other people. There is also only so much apple crumble that we can eat, so we have splashed out on a juicer. We thought about this long and hard, as they are not cheap. In the end I think it will be worth it; we also have a pear tree which will need harvesting soon. The pears don't keep so well, so at least this way I won't waste any.

Yesterday evening we had our first baked apples which I stuffed with sultanas, cinnamon and brown sugar. They were baked in an ovenproof dish with a little water at 180C for half an hour. Yum!

Tomato ketchup

Me: "I've made some tomato ketchup!"
DH (caught on the hop and incapable of lying): "Oh....(long pause)... should be interesting..."

After

Before - free with my veg box!

 The recipe is here!

Chive flower vinegar

I enjoy growing and using my own herbs. I particularly like chives and use them in lots of dishes. However, until this year I have always thrown away the flowers. Recently I was indulging in a spot of blog-hopping when I came across this post by Lili at "creative savv" on making chive flower vinegar. Lili's blog is a very inspiring mix of thrifty makes and practical advice with some beautiful photography. She has kindly allowed me to share her instructions, with the philosophy that blogging is all about sharing wisdom.

This is a very easy way to turn distilled vinegar into a "foodie" product. Distilled vinegar is 9p per 100ml in the supermarket, and my supermarket certainly doesn't sell any herb vinegars. The nearest equivalent is white wine vinegar which costs 22p per 100ml.

Once you have collected the chive flowers they need to be washed and dried. I don't have a salad spinner so I left them on some kitchen towel for a little while.

 

I didn't have as many flowers as I thought I did. You can keep them in the fridge in a sealed bag for a few days while other buds open, but I wasn't patient enough!

The flowers need to go into a clean jar. Ideally the jar should be two-thirds full. Mine wasn't quite up to that level. Then fill the jar with distilled or white vinegar.

Then simply leave the jar somewhere where you will remember to poke the blossoms under the vinegar twice a day. It is far too pretty to leave in a cupboard! You need to leave it for at least a week; the oniony flavour will become more intense the longer you leave it. After ten days mine looked like this:

Isn't that a beautiful colour? Once you are happy with the flavour the vinegar needs to be strained. It makes very good vinaigrette and is apparently excellent with fish and chips. I was thinking of gifting it, but I don't think I want to part with it!

Damson jam

Yesterday we visited my parents-in-law, who have a lovely big garden which is full of produce this time of year. I came back laden with plums, damsons, carrots and tomatoes. Tomatoes were easy to deal with - peeled, chopped and frozen within half an hour. The carrots will keep while we eat through them, and the plums will either be eaten fresh or stewed. But damsons? Mum makes great jam with them, but I am not an experienced jam-maker. Mamade marmalade is about my limit! So I was keen to have a try at the art of preserving - to me it seems a little like alchemy.

The loot!

As a complete novice I am not going to attempt a tutorial. Enough to say I used the same weight of sugar as stoned and halved damsons, and simmered the damsons first to soften them. I ended up with just over 3 jars of a richly coloured red/purple jam. Unfortunately the mixture caught on the bottom of my stock pot, so the results taste a little "caramelized(!)". The flavour is still good, so although it won't be given as presents, it will still be enjoyed!

Yum!