Foraging

Last Friday we decided to have a day of picking and storing- so off we went to the allotment for gooseberries, up the garden for cherries, the PYO for strawberries- we have had a steady supply but not enough to store- and armed with secateurs to the hedgerows for elderflowers.
On the list were- strawberry and gooseberry jam, cherry tart and elderflower cordial.

 Elderflower Cordial
20-25 heads of elderflowers

3 lemons sliced

2 oranges sliced

900gms sugar

3 litres boiling water

50gm citric acid

Pour the boiling water over the sugar and stir-allow to cool slightly,then stir in everything else. Stand for 24 hours an stir every time you think about it!

Then strain through a fine seive and bottle. I used plastic bottles that had been rinsed out with milton. 

The citric acid supposedly helps to stop the cordial fermenting and prolongs storage life. 

We have tried it with chilled sparkling water and still; it is lovely and refreshing- it does need diluting quite a bit!

Red Potatoes

Rob has suggested a taste test of new potatoes at the forthcoming Allotment Soiree - so far we have dug samples of Vale's Emerald, International Kidney(Jersey Royals) ,Nicola and Red Duke of York. These Red Duke of York look lovely and do keep the red skin when cooked, although they go dull-they are much more floury than the others- very tasty, but not as satisfying as a new potato. So far Vale's Emerald are the favourite, unhappily however we have eaten them all so none left for the Soiree!!

Busy Birgit

Finally got to inspect the hive for the second time. We had put it off for a day because of the very high winds on Sunday, much better today- calm and sunny. A little smoke but all seemed extremely calm as we took of the roof and crown board. Had everything ready and there were a lot more bees than last week- as I took out each frame I made notes so I know exactly how things were progressing. Birgit had started laying on one of the new frames and the bees were begining to draw out a further two, but were leaving one side of the frames that they came on. I can only think that maybe that frame was originally too close to the others as it is not a self spacing frame and the bee space must have been a bit close. But Trev managed  to get good pictures- there was good capped brood, new eggs, stores and pollen. Birgit was easy to spot on one of the original frames but she had obviously been busy. It was exciting to look in and see what is happening- we have spent lots of time in this fantastic sunny spell just watching the comings and goings, its reassuring to feel that all looks well inside!

First Harvest

This time of year is busy with first harvests of fruit and veg- this year Vale's Emerald potatoes were grown in bags and the first ones were emptied out last week-they were delicious,easily the tastiest new potato I have eaten for a long time- it may have something to do with being on the plate within an hour of being emptied out of the earth, but we'll be looking out to grow this one again next year!

Have also been harvesting fruit- strawberries, summer raspberries, lovely tayberries and this fanatstically colourful basket of cherries- I love summer fruit!!

Bee Day

At last the day arrived (22nd June- I know ,very slack keeping up with the news!) after a seesion with Hilary at her apairy in Derbyshire I went to collect my bees. Birgit the queen and her attendants were brought home in their little box and placed where their hive would be - the little door opened and we stood and watched....
Bearing in mind that it was about 11 o'clock at night and any self respecting bee would be in bed, hardly surprising -nothing happened!
So next morning before work out we went and- bees milling around orienting themselves; very exciting!

So later that same day.......home from work and bee suits donned we transferred our precious bees from their box into the brand new hive, gave them a feed and left them to settle down. Birgit was easy to see with a bright blue spot on her back, lots of capped brood and stores to keep her going.
So over the past week we have spent lots of fascinating time watching what has been happening- finally the suspense got too much and we had to have a look!
Birgit was there- lots more new eggs, which meant she had been laying while she has been here, stores and capped bood all seemed as it should bee!
Today there seemed lots more bees foraging and various colours of pollen going in to be stored- think there will have to be a check this weekend to see whats going on inside; so will update soon!

Just June

Picked asparagus and the first strawberries on Saturday- just what summer ought to be, although now the rain is pouring down outside-this is obviously the type of summer it's going to be.We planted out the sweetcorn and squash so they have had a good watering in,hopefully they are not standing in water like last week.

Sweet Potatoes

I am always interested in trying new varieties and types of veg- sweet potatoes don't grow easily in Britain but thought I would give it a try. This method seems to be working to get them started, the tubers came from Sainsbury's and I have suspended them in water in a jar and after about 2 weeks this is the result- roots and shoots. I tried 2 tubors but the other I put in an opaque pot- that one did not shoot at first so I have transferred it to a glass jar and that is now growing away. The next step is to pot them in to compost and see what happens over the summer!(Tried hard to get a pic that did not look too rude!)