Preparing for Winter V

villagelife

Have a bumper crop of plums so stewing the first picking of them.
On my walk today I found damsoms so will go out with a bag next time.

Saipan

I tried eating a raw quince once - never again!
Just magical though when stewed or turned into jam or jelly.  And they smell divine if left on a sunny windowsill.
@VJsmum - imagine a sort of cross between an apple and a pear with knobbly bits, the colour of a lemon   

VintageHistorian

Have booked the boiler service for the first week of September. Looks like I'll be working from home for a while yet and the last thing I want is the heating breaking down!

Floss

Good shout...will book mine tomorrow!

[Deleted User]

The wild blackberries here are still hard little green things at the moment, we've had so little rainfall over the past few months they just haven't developed at all so I doubt we'll get any at all or if we do it will be much later in September before they're ripe and ready to pick. What do seem to be abundant are wild rose hips and the hawthorn and rowan are showing really bright berries  and look ripe and ready as are the elderberries that are hanging over garden fences on the village footpaths.  Bumper year for the wildlife in terms of available food this year.

AlwaysAllie

silvasava said:

When having a freezrr clear out I've made jam from a mixture of raspberries, loganberries, blackberries,blacurrants and blueberries - came out fine and very tasty as its not too sweet.  Didnt bother with proportions just made the weight up to what I needed. I have a quince tree with two neighbours waiting in the wings for them to ripen  

Long time lurker but had to pop in to say my Mum does this and labels it as ‘jumbleberry jam’ 😃

AA

MingVase

Looks like a lot of flooding around just now, we have flood alerts on the Tweed and the Teviot. For  anybody in a flood - prone area is there anything that can be done to prep against poss floods this winter? I'm on top of a hill so it doesnt apply to me, I can't suggest anything. Apart from the bug out bag ready packed in case you have to get out fast.

Laura_Elsewhere

MingVase said:

Looks like a lot of flooding around just now, we have flood alerts on the Tweed and the Teviot. For  anybody in a flood - prone area is there anything that can be done to prep against poss floods this winter? I'm on top of a hill so it doesnt apply to me, I can't suggest anything. Apart from the bug out bag ready packed in case you have to get out fast.

Friends in an 1810s house that acquired flood-risk when a new estate was built on flood-plains upstream (grrr) became very adept over a few years - I think one thing is simply to know where is likely to flood and how much. Talk to older locals, as well. My friends had all electric sockets moved to waist-height on the ground floor, which saved a FORTUNE. And they changed bookcases for those cube shelving things, with all their books and so on in boxes that slotted into the cube spaces, but when a flood threatened they could just lift each shelf's contents out in its box and carry it upstairs. And they got rid of their fitted carpets and had loose carpets as well, so they could take those upstairs. 

Laura_Elsewhere

AlwaysAllie said:

silvasava said:

When having a freezrr clear out I've made jam from a mixture of raspberries, loganberries, blackberries,blacurrants and blueberries - came out fine and very tasty as its not too sweet.  Didnt bother with proportions just made the weight up to what I needed. I have a quince tree with two neighbours waiting in the wings for them to ripen  

Long time lurker but had to pop in to say my Mum does this and labels it as ‘jumbleberry jam’ 😃

AA

I love the name Jumbleberry Jam!  

Greenglockenspiel

I think next year we should have a preparing for summer thread, as I count this heatwave as extreme weather! <melts>

One thing that makes flooding worse is paving/astroturfing over the garden so if anyone has done that, it is easier for the water to drain back into soil without a barrier. I suspect gravel without a membrane would be the best option for driveways. Sandbags around doors are the other obvious thing that springs to mind. And keeping your important documents upstairs!

Blackberries are starting to ripen here, have already picked some. We have what I think is a damson tree in our garden and I think some of the fruit on that is ready but I’ve never had damsons before so not sure what to do with them. Any suggestions?