Well , I thought the garden was winding down a bit... and I suppose in some ways it is... but I seem to have spent all my time since my last post, either picking, preserving bottling freezing... or eating the produce we have...
Its a lovely time of the year, we are almost completely living off our garden produce. We've tons of tomatoes, I pick a washing up bowl full every other day almost... Im making tons of roasted tomato puree, and tomato passata, and pasta sauces, luckily the basil is doing well too so we eat tomato onion and basil salad with most meals...
The french beans have been wonderful, they are almost done now, but we've been eating them most days too as I have so many in the freezer I just cant freeze any more. The latest crop of peas is just starting, we've had a couple of meals from them to ring the changes from beans... there wont be enough to freeze, which is great as there just isnt the room... but I have plenty in there from our early crop anyway... the pt beans are cropping now and Im picking again a washing up bowl full every few days and no room to freeze them...
The aubergines and peppers are slowing down a bit, which is great as we are having to eat them as they come and its testing my creative cooking skills a bit at the mo... how many times can you serve up a mix of beans, toms, aubergines peppers, courgettes... without going .... ohh no not again...
The Jar situation is becoming quite critical too.... I have a few jam sized jars left for the peach preserve I plan to make this week, but the large kilo jars I use for pasta sauce etc and preserving figs in syrup are in very short supply. Sadly Ive had a few with damaged lids but I think I may have to buy some more...
My freezer is just crammed, Rick took everything out and rearranged it last night to fit in some magnificent huge honey figs our neigbour gave us... a large carrier bag ful... these are the biggest figs Ive ever seen... and so sweet... I have another large bag coming in a few days and nowhere to put them, I have a excellent recipe for bottling them in honey/tea syrup but need some jars badly.
We have done really well for fruit this year, peaches in syrup, peach preserve, blackberry and apple jam, blackberries in syrup, frozen blackberries, frozen mini grapes, frozen apples sliced... black currants...
And more peaches to come....
phew...
Frugal living in the Portuguese countryside,Eco-tourism, Agri tourism, recipes,family life, self sufficency, eco living, vegetable growing, tips and self help ideas for country living.
