Working hard...

Well its been full on non-stop ever since I got home, harvesting, preserving, storing, pickling, cooking ... sorting tons of food for the winter, despite all my worries early in the year, apart from peas and beets, we've had a massive crop.
The peppers are still a little behind but will keep on producing for weeks yet untill the frost puts an end to them, I may pull them soon though as they are so badly overshadowing the piri piri plants and they need sun to ripen..
The toms are more or less finished, we still have a lot of green ones, but just cannot manage any more, we've frozen them, eaten then, given tons away, Ive made soup, pasta sauce, tomtato sauce, roasted tomato puree... and we still have loads. So we have stopped watering them, and will try to make some green tom chutney this week, I also have a lot of overlarge marrows to make chutney with too... Jars are a real problem now... Ive almost run out ..

So much food everywhere, its wonderful, yesterday we had a roast pork, our roast potatoes, our cabbage, our yellow wax pod beans, our carrots, and a melon from our garden as desert... you just cant beat the flavour, picked straight from the garden...

Still to come are tons of cabbage, time to plant winter ones soon too, about 40 caulis looking good... still loads of carrots, Ive tried again with beets and maybe we'll get a few. The squashes are poor compared to last year but we'll have enough for winter, Ive plenty of jerusalem artichokes come up too, they'll make a nice change.
Yesterday we pulled all the runner bean plants and dealt with those, we leave them to fill out and then I pod them and freeze them as loose beans, instead of as sliced beans , as we have so many green bean type s we use the small hard beans in soup during winter as a substitute for dried beans. Ive also got enough to dry and save as next years seed, the same with the yellow waxy pods and french beans... next year I should halve my seed costs..
I brough back some packets of sweetcorn seed for next year as its hard to get here, you can get maize seed but its never as good for eating...

Simple roasted tomato Puree.

Fill a roasting dish with cherry toms, or chop in chunks other toms, a good sprinkle of sea salt.. peel and leave whole about 10-12 cloves of garlic, peel and cut into chunks a med onion scatter on top, then add tons of shredded basil, a good drizzle of olive oil, and a nice big splurge of balsamic vinegar... mix it all in together and roast in a med hot oven till its all thick and gloopy... take your time dont burn it...
Blend with a hand blender, pour into hot jars, cover with a drop of olive oil and screw lids on tight.
Leave to cool and then label... in a cool cupboard mine keeps all winter...

Use a couple of tablespoons to toss spagetti in... just add Parmesan and fresh basil..... mmmmmmnnn
Or use whenever you would use shop bought puree... its so much more yummy..

Home at last..

Well hello!!! Im home and so glad to be back I cannot put it into words... I'll try really hard to sort out this blog again now, to bring things up to date and have a little re-organisation around here too.

Firstly, Ive changed settings so sadly only followers on this blog can leave a comment, maybe that will deter the spammers, if it doesnt work or makes life difficult for REAL people who wish to comment, please email me, patricia@livingthedreamportugal.com and I'll try to sort it out.

Dad is doing really well at the moment, his health is never going to be great again, he's almost 80, has smoked, drank , not exercised and generally abused his body over a lifetime... so its about normal really. He's hoping to leave hospital over the next couple of weeks and I have other family menbers there helping out and looking in on him. I may have to go back towards the end of the month but I'll worry about that then. Now Im just enjoying being home...

Ricky has done so well coping alone, the freezer is jam packed with produce, so much so, Im trying to use up a lot to make pasta sauce so I have space for all our carrots still to come, I picked three washing up bowls full of tomatoes yesterday, plus peppers, aubergines, courgettes, and butternut squash. Bless him he even made some tomato sauce himself, 12 kilo jars!!
Yesterday I made a dozen jars of roasted tomato puree, yummy... I'll post the recipe later.
Today we are making more pasta sauce... we pulled the last of the french beans... and Ill add them to the pasta sauce, and use them up. We'll certainly be eating a lot of pasta this winter!!
Im also putting in tons of basil , as we have loads, wonderful stuff too...
Plus still loads of cabbages, the caulis are looking good, Im hoping they will heart up soon... and chillis... the small Piri piri kind.... literally hundreds!! Im going to start picking the red ones later...
Im also hoping to sweet pickle a few beetroots today too... its all full on now!

The log barn is looking good, Rik has tried to continue on with that , but obviously itsa slow job on your own, but its half full ... we must look to that next week... once I have the food situation under control..

Beesa the puppy is gorgeous, rik still having problems with the house training at night, she's good during the day but at night still poops.. Im now taking over the night duty and making a few changes to her routine that I think will help... I hope so...

Blogging from Ireland

Well Im sorry its been so long, I keep saying that dont I? But here I am now still in Ireland, it looks like Ill be here a while yet, Ive promised my dad I will stay untill he's home again and settled. It may take a lot longer than I anticipated. But... he's my dad and thats all there is to it.
So... Rik is coping well with things while Im gone, its very hard for him to do all his work and mine too, plus, the weather turned extremely hot about a week or so before I left and has continued ever since and the garden went crazy... he cut and chopped 40 kilos of tomatoes in just one day!! We are having the biggest bumper crop of them ever, and me not there to deal with it all, also the aubergines and courgettes, beans, and herbs too. I would be making and putting into jars tons of pasta sauce by now as the freezer is getting too full. But he just doesnt know the proccess, although I have explained, he doesnt have the time or feel confident enough to try he's afraid to spoil a lot of produce...
Beeza is coming along so well, Im so sad not to be there and be able to bond with her as I would like, sadly she wont know me when I go home, but Bonnie is looking after her , they are great friends now and Bonnie is a different dog again, so happy and they play all day. Rik says that when Bonnie has had enough she'll walk away, and often has the little one hanging off her tail and just carries on and drags her across the kitchen... looks very funny.
Hes struggling a little with the house training at night, but its early days and it will get better, usually its me that does that bit... heheheh
Now I have internet access I'l try to keep this updated, the weather here is pooh compared to home, I wear my fleece jacket most of the time... but i spend most of day in the hospital so its not too bad. Although I cannot believe the price of basic fresh food... veg and fruit... triple what we'd pay in Portugal...