My first home-made marmalade!

So here is the result of several hours of peeling, slicing, boiling.... six and a half jars of wonderful Green Tomato Marmalade! Yum. I added a little crystallised ginger to it which gives a lovely bite to the sweetness of the tomatoes.  I'm still not entirely confident about getting the setting point right with jam-making, but it'll still taste good even if it is a bit runny. In fact, one of my favourite creations this summer was Apple and Blackberry Jellyish which, whilst not having the ideal jelly texture I had intended, is absolutely fab dribbled over Greek yoghurt.

And more good news - our newly acquired hens have finally started laying!! Hooray! Nearly a month ago we took two ex-battery hens and a little bantam from a couple who didn't want to keep them any more and we've been waiting ever since for them to lay. The ex-batteries were in quite a state still, with missing feathers, and as they were totally unused to being completely free-range it took them a long time to adjust to having a quarter of an acre to roam about in: they didn't seem to know what to do with themselves and spent most of their day hiding under the whitecurrant bushes. We treated them with some red mite powder last week even though we couldn't really see any evidence of infestation (apart from the feathers dropping out & lack of eggs), and it seems to have made a big difference, as they look much healthier. The little pointy ones at the top are from the bantam and the enormous pale ones are from the batteries. None of them have names yet, unlike our original girls, Nellie & Gertie. Suggestions welcome!

Green Tomatoes

This is the last but one crop of tomatoes from the greenhouse. They seem to be taking forever to ripen up (I'm guessing that's due to lack of sunshine) so I've had enough and plan to turn them into Green Tomato Marmalade, which can be found here. I have to leave it all overnight to 'macerate' apparently, so I'll let you know how it goes. This year I grew plum tomatoes, two kinds of cherry toms, marmandes (the lumpy-looking one middle left in the basket) and tigerellas (stripey). Next year I'm not sure I'll do as many if I grow any at all. As nice as fresh toms are, they're very hungry and time-consuming to grow, so with baby no. 3 due in March I don't think I'll have time.


macerate |ˈmasəˌrāt|
verb [ trans. ]1 soften or break up (something, esp. food) by soaking in a liquid.• [ intrans. ] become softened or broken up by soaking.2 archaic cause to grow thinner or waste away, esp. by fasting.

Last night I started composing the third piece of the white quilt, but it hasn't come together as easily as the first two, so I'm wondering if it's a sign I need to be getting on with something else for a bit instead. Sometimes I think it's a good idea to just let a project sit for a while so that you can come back to it with a fresh brain. I do have plenty of other things I keep meaning to finish, and of course there is still the allotment which needs to be dealt with before winter sets in for good. There is one last window for sowing seeds in the Autumn before the big wait until Spring (which will be a busy time anyway) and I've already run out of time for a few things I had wanted to do, so I have to get going with peas and beans for a nice early Spring crop.

This morning I sorted out all the girls clothes into boxes to put into the cupboard in Jess's room, which Jude has built new shelves for at last, which was very satisfying. I always collect stacks of clothes for when they're older (as well as keeping everything no. 1 has worn to pass down) and every now and then it just needs a good sort out so I can actually get to them when they're needed. My lovely friend passes on anything she can't use as well so it all usually ends up just piled up any old how, so it's a real relief to have some order to it all. At the end of the day there is WAY too much - more than they could ever wear - but I can't bear to donate it Just In Case. Left to my own devices I'm a terrible hoarder anyway, so it's even worse with a family.

So - on with the curtains! Gosh, my life's exciting ;)