July Harvests

I realised when my son Richard told me, that I haven`t written a blog in a long time, in fact a month, so if there is anyone still out there trying to read it I will tell you what I have been doing.
There isn`t much to do in the garden at the moment because the ground is very dry and solid and it is taking a lot of time dealing with all the produce.
It started with the apricot jam and then we had the courgette glut, thank goodness they have dropped back to a manageable level and the tomato and courgette chutney is lovely.
I have picked so many kilos of tomatoes and bottled them for the winter that I am a bit sick of doing them and I have bottled apricots and peaches.
I have pears to bottle next and there are loads of aubergines too. I will fry some slices of aubergine and fry and freeze them ready for winter moussaka and I have been given a recipe for a spicy aubergine chutney which sounds good.
The cupboard in the store room is filling up nicely and the shelves in the kitchen are full.

Robert and Stephen brought us some yellow and dark plums from their garden at Mourtero and I have made jam with them but apricot is my favourite.
The pumpkins are growing well and when I harvest them I will hang them in onion bags in the store.



aubergines



a selection of chilli peppers

It is a shame all the bottling and jamming has to take place when it is so hot but I do go to aquafit twice a week which is good fun and I hope is helping to keep down the beer and peanut belly I would definately have otherwise.