Get a grip woman!

rtandon27

Aye - it's unanimous - health first, everything else second (insert finger waggling emoji here)

Suffolk_lass

Oh dear, no medical advice re ankle yet. Just doing a sports strapping with a self-grip bandage to stop it deteriorating. At least I know from a previous life how to do so without doing further damage or cutting off the circulation!

I am in the grip of produce processing. I need to pick, prep, pack and freeze some, and stew and bottle others so full on and a bit non-stop. We also filled three of those ton aggregate bags with garden debris yesterday, making the navigation around paths a bit easier. 

Our new bee equipment arrived this morning so that needs sorting next. And I need to treat the bees for varroa mite this week too. I might sneak out and check the courgettes while DH toasts a couple of crumpets for a late elevenses coffee

foxgloves

You have been busy, @Suffolk_lass. Do be careful on that dodgy ankle. I did some some tomato-bottling yesterday & haven't ruled out doing another batch if more bulk processing becomes necessary. Courgettes have slowed down. Still producing, but not at the incredible rate they were achieving previously. If I can get more tomato soup & pasta sauce into the freezer, I'll prioritise those, as well as putting gigantes plakis on next week's meal plans as the slow cooker recipe I use for this uses lots of lovely fresh tomatoes. What a lovely time of year. Busy time, but so satisfying to be squirrelling away the fruits of our labours.
F 

 

Suffolk_lass

It really is, isn't it @foxgloves! The fruits of our gardening labour. I am so far behind with your diary after two successive weekends away! I have stewed and bottled two jars of black and apple (berries, juiced, currants sieved and juiced) and five jars of plum and apple this morning. I've picked a dozen apples, a tray of Victoria plums, two cucumbers, five large tomatoes and a dozen cherry tomatoes, half a punnet each of raspberries and blackberries, several courgettes, and a tray of beans! - More processing to be undertaken! I plan to make a ragu next though, so it looks like I am on top of the food planning. I think I shall make more courgette based cakes tomorrow.

foxgloves

I can assure you that you've missed nothing of any note on my diary x

Suffolk_lass

I have @foxgloves. I intend catching up on 150 posts (mostly I will read yours properly and speed read the others if I can remember how!) - I did chip in after you tagged me yesterday, so I need to note where to start from.

I have bread on the first prove after oversleeping this morning (after two get-ups in the night) - DH came to bed at 02:54 and woke me up. Words (calm and received the same way) have just been had. Anyway, the bread is using sourdough plus a sachet of yeast that is taking ages to rise. In the meantime the oven has a tray of wax cappings over water melting at 65-75c. I have also got some dried butterbeans going - now in soak and I will add them to the pasta I am cooking (and add the sliced runner beans at the end) for our simple supper; runner bean pasta salad, with a spicy dressing. Lots of substitutions but based on a Delicious (magazine and website) recipe.

I will may need to shop this week but as I picked up a lettuce plus milk and cream at the local coop yesterday, I might leave this until Friday and buy some fish on the Morries points offer. On the other hand, Friday is market day and the lovely local fishmonger will be there (he charges a lot more but I like to shop locally). With all the produce from the garden and our forthcoming visit to Mother followed by a week away (near @edinburgher's recommended Arran location), hopefully I can keep spending below £100 for groceries.

Garden
I think all the runner beans are done and just the small amount of borlotti beanss left to hopefully fatten and crop. The Victoria plums are done, and we were left an anonymous carrier bag full on the doorstep that I have yet to process. I might need to freeze some as I refuse to buy more jars and my larder is stuffed. I also have 7 huge apples to deal with. 

House and outbuildings
I seriously need to get the pig shed better organised. The freezer is DH full (that might mean there is 20% more space left if I repack it ). That is a today job as it is going to be 30c here today.

I also want us to have a bit of a sort out in the cart lodge. DH has one HD awaiting a part from USA so not there and the other is going tomorrow night (was tomorrow morning when I started writing this post) to be made ready to ride in the interim. It needs an MOT and a battery. Not sure what else until it is looked at. Anyway from my point of view, it leaves a big enough space for us to spend Thursday going through what is in there; hot or not. It is at least, at the front of the house and therefore in the shade all afternoon.

The workshop needs treating (big wooden shed) and if we move bees three feet forward and send two hives to our friends ready to relocate to an out apiary, I can do start that this week

Bees
The honey we took this summer amounts to one very full 10L bucket plus a bit in the bowl where I strained the wax cappings.  I need to let the farm taste this and the spring honey to see what they want. I will need to jar some up.

We are also treating all our bees for Varroa destructor - a mite that is endemic here in the UK and which drifts from colony to colony via the drones and feeds on the fat bodies of bees and their larvae, weakening the bees and opening them up to viral diseases or deformities. This year I am using some chemical strips; 2 per hive, one er nucleus. The strips stay in for 6 weeks - no longer or the possibility of the mites developing a resistance to them is increased. We will be home from our Scottish travels by then and removing them should be straightforward, if making them grumpy!

We want to put some more colonies at one of the houses with grounds in our village that host bees, ready for next year, so two hives are going on their holidays this week to our friends five miles plus away. If they go this week, they can come home to their new location at the start of October, ready to boom next year (hopefully). They need three weeks to reorientate so it should work well.

We are also feeding invert syrup to 6 colonies out of 13.

That is quite enough of me. The sun is shining, DH is preparing plums, beans are soaking, wax is melting and I need to pick again!

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, stamps!

We did send ours off and a week or so back received a letter saying they were all counterfeit except for the second class book so they sent us 6 (2nd class stamps, not books). This seemed unlikely as I also had two books of stamps from purses, definitely bought in the post office near us.

There were too many to go on one form so DH had half sent to my Mum. In contrast she received 33 books of four first class stamps with no queries. I imagine the big purchase I made was a scam and DH split the books (of 12x1st class) between two forms and added the ones out of my purse. Maybe they just scanned the top one on Mum's form. Anyway, I always had a bad feeling about them and I was right!

Moral? don't ever click on anything on Faceache that is an advert. I was reminded because DH fell to a dozy click through scam and has had to cancel his credit card. His was just £36 but his name will be out there now as gullible!

On the upside, I won £35 on a local millennium club draw, so only £1 out of pocket on his scam. Then I checked the PB and I won £150 - a £100 and a £50. Not too shabby!

Suffolk_lass

Preserves - enough for winter? I have just bottled four jars of Victoria plums, and two jars of raspberries. I have several apples still to go. No idea where I will fit them all...

Fortune_Smiles

A fabulous collection @Suffolk_lass - everything looks delicious 😋

Fortune x

Suffolk_lass

Thank you Fortune, I am a little smug about them. The tomatoes are still from last year. I did think then that 54 jars might be a few more than we need (they are 500g jars as opposed to 440g tins). 

My repacking of the produce freezer means there is room for a bit more now. Only 10% and not the anticipated 20% but I can't cope with berries in the midst of courgettes so a bit of order has been applied. It is just as well I repacked it as I have more courgettes to prep, and already three courgette and lime (well lemon, actually) 1lb loaf cakes in the freezer on top of the meat.

Not all going to plan though! Wretched bread might not get baked until tonight. I wonder if the slightly out of date yeast has had it and it is relying only on the sourdough. It is proving, but oh so slowly, and in this warm weather!