Moving on

badmemory

I thought the lemon juice was because of the apples.

redofromstart

Lemon juice is useful for the natural pectin in contains, and yes I use either that or a cooking apple or both to help the jam set. 

I haven't made any this year, very poor soft fruit performance here - although lots and lots of apples on the tree.  I only make strawberry if the punnets are reduced to pennies. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Re jelly, etc., I do much the same as @redofromstart... it varies a bit depending on fruit- like redo I add apple or apple peel and cores if it's something with minimal pectin, but not if it's something like redcurrants that have masses of pectin. I almost always add enough water to cover the fruit, more if it's plums or damsons or apples, less if it's berries. I leave it with the lid on overnight and next day to steep, and then drip it through several layers of muslin over the next night, and make the jelly next day, so it's a 3-day process!
I use a Pyrex pint-jug to measure the liquid, and do a pound of sugar to a pint of jelly, much the same ratio. 

I make fruit cheeses too- real mediaeval ones are like Portuguese membrillo which is the surviving quince cheese, but you can make a modern version that you can use like jam but it's thick with no bits- basically, with jam, you start with bits of fruit, with jelly you start with clear liquid, but with fruit cheese you start with a giant smoothie! You simmer the fruit and then push it through a sieve to give you a thick gloopy smoothie, and then use that, a pint of gloop to a pound of sugar, and boil it up to setting point and treat it like jam or jelly (the real mediaeval fruit cheeses are a bit different; you cook it very slowly, not boiling, barely simmering, for hours, and it makes a stiff paste you then set in straight-sided moulds, and once set solid, you turn it out and wrap in greaseproof paper, and then again, and when you use it, you cut slices to have with cold meat and (milk!) cheese). 
For syrup, you cook up as for making jelly, but you don't bother about a setting point or pectin, you just boil it til it's syrupy and put into sterilised bottles with very good screw-tops. Once opened, use within about a month and keep in the fridge. 

I also keep a bag in the freezer and add odd fruit I find on trotting to the shops that isn't enough for a batch of anything, and then at the end of the season I make Hedgerow Jelly, Hedgerow Syrup, etc, which is often nicer than the single-variety ones It's usually a glorious deep red as well, like stained-glass window! 

redofromstart

ooh I hadn't thought of making fruit cheeses @Laura_Elsewhere, quince would be very well received here.  I will have a google on that.  Thank you.

Cherryfudge

@Laura_Elsewhere, what is DH going to say to me when I tell him we're moving into the pantry for living quarters and the rest of the house will be dedicated to food storage or rare and enticing foodstuffs he's never heard of?  

I love the sound of the Hedgerow bounty: I always keep an eye out for sloes, haws and rosehips but have yet to do anything beyond sloe gin.

Many years ago I made a spiced pear butter which would probably have been delicious except that I only had half the quantity of pears but forgot to halve some of the spices. Alas, I didn't try again but there are now enough blackberries ready to pick to make something else... funny what stays in the mind years later.

Laura_Elsewhere

I once found a hedgerow of the most lush fat juicy sloes on a walk when I had only a very small bag, so I only brought back about a mug-full- I put them in a small bowl, just enough water to cover, and pinged them gently, 30 seconds and wait a minute and 30 seconds, until they were soft and I could fish out the stones- then I added a sprinkle of sugar, just enough to take off the face-folding astringency! and then mixed it with plain yog... absolutely delicious, sloe yoghourt... 

Cherryfudge

Today DH has taken Auntie for a day in the town where she used to live. I could have opted in but he was already hassled enough without coping with me as well, and I'm happier at home.

I decided to finish up the bread flour and use the containers for cereal as I rarely make bread now. I dug the bread maker out of the emergency food supplies cupboard and the flour containers, which are supposed to seal tight, out of the larder. Alas, although it's been sealed shut and not used for ages, the wholemeal flour had a very few creepy crawlies in. Given the amount of time it's been there, and the fact these were few but living, I don't know if they had been dormant and the weather has woken them, or if they've somehow got in - but other flours aren't showing signs of life. Anyway, the bread flour has gone in the bin. I used rye flour and a random unlabelled white flour that need to be used up - I've not got to the bottom of either but I've cut up some strong cheese, sundried tomatoes and olives for flavouring. Who knows how it will turn out?  

Cherryfudge

The bread is a jaw-breaker but very tasty. The rye flour makes an incredibly dense crust, but it may be partly because I accidentally used the wrong setting on the machine.

DH and Auntie returned from their day out at about three but they seem to have enjoyed it, and she brought me back some flowers as a thank you for having her. She also treated us to a meal out this evening: mine was a pasta dish with cheese and spinach sauce followed by apple crumble, ice cream and toffee sauce. So sweet but so delicious!

I've bought a card and voucher and sent them first class for E's birthday. Card £2, voucher £25 and postage £1.35. I could have sent it special delivery to ensure it got there tomorrow and was insured, but that would have been another £7 or so.

I also had a text from my friend who I used to work with, now nursing a broken bone due to a fall. I don't think it's too bad as she carried on working, thinking it was sprained! At least it's being treated now, and I've invited her round for a catch-up.

Expenditure:
Gift IRO £28.35
DH's spending unknown.

Cherryfudge

Auntie set off for home this morning and DH has gone to work. My morning job was to take a captured mouse and release it far away, actually at a wooded area with a beck and a field of a birdseed. This mouse wasn't as nervous as I've grown to expect: its body language was more relaxed, though as we walked out of town, I felt it quiver whenever there was a low machine noise. (Doubly good reason to release it well away from the road). Instead of leaping out of the trap when I opened the door, it stood at the edge surveying the grass for a moment, jumped onto a tussock, surveyed again then dived into the depths of the long grass. That's the best I can do for it - food, shelter and water. I know there is an argument against releasing them into an unknown world where they won't know where to go for food, but my bin was an unknown world with far less healthy food when it climbed in there. It had ignored the mouse trap set where the other mouse had gone right in, and I only knew it had visited because of the shredded plastic bin liner - which can't be good for it.

And as far as walks go, what a lovely way to start the day. Sunshine, real tee-shirt weather, peace and nature all around. I started a few pigeons from the trees in the scrub alongside the beck, watched ladybirds sauntering across a farm track and took photos of the seeds against the blue of the sky, chin-high on the shaded side of the field and knee-high higher up. I was out a little over an hour. There are no larks - where have they gone? There were so many three or four years ago. No grasshoppers, either.

So the trap is now disinfecting, then I've the bin to do and some washing to put in the machine. Lunch will be spicy soup and home made bread, which I'm very happy about. There's work at five, and DH is having cold chicken again for tea.

Cherryfudge

I had a text from my friend about meeting up, so we spent the afternoon in my garden, putting the world to rights. She wasn't complaining but aside from the recent fracture, her husband and son are both out of work, an elderly aunt is seriously ill and her husband has had a health scare. She is planning not to go off sick but will have adapted duties till the break heals. However I think we both enjoyed ourselves this afternoon.

I had three hours at work and came back to a peaceful house - also nice and tidy thanks to efforts pre-visitor! Nothing spent.