Monday, 14 July 2008

Everything Aches!

Oh God! I don't think my knees, back, arms and legs will ever be the same again! This is what comes of having a week of shitty weather then one Sunday of glorious sunshine.

On the plus side I have managed to tame the veg patch again, it seemed to think that as I was confined indoors it could run wilded, well not anymore, haha!
Sadly the peas have come to an end, I collected what I think will be the last batch, they are now waiting to be shelled and frozen.





The spuds have been wonderful, I dug up the first row I planted way back in March, I need the room and they were over shadowing the onions, our fridge is now over flowing with them, so I must think of lots of meals containing potatoes, I feel bangers an mash coming on (which shall be cooked by the lovely Richard of course!).





As soon as the onions come out which should be in the next couple of weeks, I'm hoping to get some carrots in and maybe some cauliflower plugs (hopefully I haven't left it too late) I shall be practicing my usual approach to veg growing which is bung it in and keep your fingers crossed.



I still waiting for the bulk of the tomatoes to turn yellow and red, we don't seem to have as many this year, I'm growing the same verities but they seem smaller some how, maybe this is just me, I'm desperate to make homemade tomato soup again! The grape that is also in the greenhouse seems to be growing well, its reached the roof in no time at all, I don't think we'll get anything from it this year, but I cant wait till next summer to see what happens!



And as it was Sunday yesterday, I forced Rich out of bed at an ungodly hour to go car booting, my favourite past time in the summer! I'm on the look out for kilner type pickling jars, Rich wants to pickle the chillies growing in the greenhouse, and if we ever get any tomatoes I want to make green tomato chutney, I also want to have a stab at doing blackberry jam this year, we have hundreds of huge blackberry hedges down our lane so I'll be able to get hold of plenty.
Well yesterday we seemed to be on to a winner, I manged to get 4 big jars for the grand total of £3.50, and that wasn't the only thing we got. On the way out we spotted an old typewriter, when we stopped to have a closer look we saw it was totally rusted solid but still very pretty looking, the lady only wanted £2.50 for it so it had to come home with us.



Its now sitting happily outside on my singer sawing table, as it's already rusted up I don't mind it sitting out in the weather, I may make in into a planted or something later but for now I think it looks pretty cool sitting with the geraniums!



Apparently my garden doesn't contain enough old crap already, hell there's always room for more!!

3 comments:

Gemma said...

Hi Kate!!

Just thought i'd let you know a top tip for storing spuds (incase you get totally overrun with them)....

According to Jamie Oliver if you get a large box and put some sand in the bottom (about 4 or so inches) add a layer of potatoes and cover with more sand, (you can repeat this with as many layers as needed)... store in a dark place (garage or shed) and they'll keep for absolutely ages!!

Alternatively... any excess spuds you i'll happily scoff.. sausage an mash... uuuum yummy yummy!!

Gemma said...

oups that was supposed to say.. any excess spuds you have.. i'll happily scoff. hehe... i should really learn to spell properly..x

Kat said...

Hi Gem

thanks for the spud tips, we watched that Jamie Oliver series and I got the book for my birthday so am trying to follow some of his ideas (although keeping food any were but in our kitchen means it gets scoffed by the mice! Stella really need to pull her weight more!)