Tuesday 1 October 2013

Autumnal

Now I love this time of year, weather's a bit cooler - being fair skinned I'm not overly keen on the hot weather - the night's are drawing in and it's harvest time.

I'd forgotten how busy harvest time can be, picking and plucking, chopping, freezing, bottling, pickling, storing all that produce that you've lovingly cared for over the season.  Or in our case, making sure it's fit for sale, if it isn't, we eat it.  A win win situation I think you'll agree.

The Victoria plums have been fab this year, loads and loads dripping from the tree; my fingers are stained from the de-stoning I've been doing.  The dogs have also been picking them up from the under the trees; they've sold well too.  The Bramley apples have been a bit low on yield this year; their size is good, just not many of them.  Have also stopped putting them out for sale as people haven't been buying them - can't understand why.  Are they an old fashioned thing?  Doesn't anybody make apple pie anymore or apple sauce for that matter?  Well, I shall freeze them for winter time and when those two pigs are in the freezer there'll be lots of apple sauce to go with that roasted pork - Yum!

Potatoes have been good this year too, we are harvested second earlies now, a red skinned variety, the name of which I can't remember.  They are a little scabby in places, but I think that's more to do with our sandy soil than anything.  The yield is excellent.

Onions and shallots have been good too, they always seem to do well on our soil; you should see the size of some of the onions, whoppers they are.

And of course the courgette and marrow harvest is as big as ever.  It has rather got away from me I must admit, most of my courgettes are now marrows.  I do manage to stuff about one a year for a meal, that's about all I can stomach, the're not really my thing.

Got another day tomorrow picking and sorting the harvest.  The good thing about having pigs at this time of year means that nothing gets wasted, that always puts a smile on my face.

Stats today -

Eggs produced - 7

Sales -
2 x 1Kg bags of Victoria plums £2.00

Expenses -
Nil

4 comments:

  1. We've been selling Bramleys as fast as we can pick them. We had so many I'm selling them at a bagful for £1 ( about 3 and a half pound), very cheap but better than letting them fall. We have yet another bramley tree that we haven't even started picking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good for you. I sell them 1Kg for £1, so probably about the same. Don't know why they're not selling, they're damn good apples. More for us! Yippee!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My only way with marrow is to peel and cube the flesh, toss with diced red onion, whole garlic cubes and a good sprinkle of Thyme leaves. I then squeeze the filling out of sausage casings into little balls, mix this in and add a splash of oil then some salt and pepper and roast on a shallow tray. We scoop this up with flat breads, some of us add tomato ketchup I like my homemade plum and chilli sauce. I make this with any summer or winter squash, just adjust the cooking times.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh wow, that sounds fab, going to try that, thanks for the tip

    ReplyDelete