TARRAGON & THYME

I am very lucky in that I have a dishwasher and under normal circumstances it is OH's job to feed it and mine to empty it.  If he emptied it I would be looking around for stuff for weeks.  So this little regime seems to work for the best part. Funnily enough he is not keen on handwashing.   The other problem is that I have a lot of vintage pieces of china and porcelain which I use on a regular basis.  These are definitely not dishwasher proof or indeed Geoffrey proof.  He will bung anything and everything into the dishwasher.  I therefore have to segregate out what he can happily deal with and then I set to with the hand washing up to make sure that  my porcelain lives to see another day. The dishwasher is a boon, especially when I am working and in a hurry to do this or that.  It is an absolute boon for sterilising my jam jars or preserving jars.  That I really do appreciate it for. Washing up by hand though has its own par...

It has been a wet and cold day here in Peterborough.  The rain has flowed all day gently, giving the earth a good watering which it sorely needed.  I had hoped to do gardening again today but that was not to be.  Instead I have been sorting out stuff, getting it cleaned up and sorted.  I have stripped out four fermenting bins today in readiness for further action on the wine front.  I will also have the ginger beer plant to make up on Friday evening.  The plant has been working beautifully.  I have also made some more plain yogurt as I really use this a lot. I have also placed an order for bread flour with Shipton Mill as I was getting very frustrated in not being able to source any bread flour.  I think it has been about but I just have not been there when they have had it.  The link for Shipton Mill is  https://www.shipton-mill.com/ .  They are exceptionally busy and you will need some perseverance and patience in access...

It has been a lovely day here in Peterborough today, too nice to be cooped up in the house and so I decided to do a bit more in the garden.  Did not get into the garden until after 1:00pm and then started to re-arrange things.  My mini grow houses were down the bottom of the garden.  I have brought them further up so that I don't have to go down the garden in the dark as there is no lighting.  Before then I had to move the patio table and clear a load of self-set weeds out of the pavement, and then sweep up the path.  The pavement is to get a sprinkle down the cracks where the weeds grow with some white vinegar to see if it will get rid of them.  Am not keen on using weed killers per se.  I have four growing houses.  I put new covers on  three of them as the old ones were ripped.  The fourth one at the moment is used more like a cold frame or pot/tray store.  That took a little time but eventually got them all nicely sorted....

This morning we had a bit of a lay in, not by design just overslept.  We then had some fish and chips for dinner together with mushy peas.  Not too bad at all.  I had already sourced Chicken Kiev's for tea tonight.  They are a firm favourite. I needed to top up on food shopping and so walked into town with my trolley.  I cannot carry things properly these days so despite the loss of street cred I opted for a small bright purple butterfly decorated trolley which is enough for me to manage.  The bonus is that if it is empty it will sit quite happily on a shopping trolley on the central hook under the handle.  I walked in as I needed the exercise and the day had been a lovely bright warm sunny day.  I only got as far as Waitrose and despite me planning on shopping there later in the day I decided to shop whilst I was there and get OH to come and collect the shopping trolley so that I could then go into town.  They were operating a 2 metre a...

I plan on getting a couple of gallons of this on the go for Christmas this year for this month.  We are rather partial to ginger at the best of time and especially ginger wine.  A few years back this used to be a regular on our itinerary when were making a lot of wine and I am keen to get back into the habit as it were.  I have plans to do a lot of wine this year.  Having been bought up in the practice of being able to have a glass of wine on Sunday dinner I am keen to be able to do this again.  Not that I am a massive drinker but I do like country wines - they add something to your meal.  My Nan made a lot of wine as she had the vegetables and the fruits available to her as they had over two acres of land most of which was planted with fruit trees.  She also used the "Wild Larder" extensively as well.  At the moment I cannot lay my hands on my recipe book, but have found this one by John Wright which sounds very much the same.  Ginger Wine ...

I started sorting out the innards of the kitchen cupboards.  I am a short person some 5 foot 3 inches in my stockinged feed (used to be 5ft 5 inches) so I cannot feasibly reach up to the kitchen wall cupboards without assistance from a step stool or a ladder.  As the ladder is in the kitchen from something else I did earlier in the week, I used that.  I was sorting the tea and coffee cupboard out and adding in some new bits and bobs as I am attempting to get everything in its proper place.  I was dangling on one foot on the ladder when I lost my balance.  I popped my hand out to steady myself but fell and caught hold of the kitchen cupboard door which was open and ripped the cupboard door in half.  OH has had a look at it and thinks it can be repaired if he takes it off glues and clamps it.  Fingers crossed and toes plaited that it can be fixed.  I think I may be a bit of a liability.  Fortunately I did not  hurt myself. One of the ...

I have long been interested in producing my own green powders for keeping the family healthy during the year.  I had looked at buying them but they cost an arm and a leg.  This is one of the subjects I have been meaning to look into further, and then a post came up from a favourite blog of mine exploring this topic and indeed giving instructions as to how to produce your own green powders and giving a selection of leaves to use.   I have learned a lot from this particular post.  Sarah Head of Tales of a Kitchen Herbwife  http://kitchenherbwife.blogspot.com/2020/04/making-your-own-green-powder.html   Sarah has used violet leaves, nettle leaves, and various other wildings leaves to produce her green powders.   I was particularly interested also in the use of violet leaves as I have been slowly increasing my stock of these lovely little flowers.  It will therefore be very gratifying to be able to use some of the leaves as well.   The or...

What do you do with them.  Compost them.  Put them in the bin.   At this time of year once a week I start feeding my plants with them.  All the used tea bags are popped into an old tall Kilner jar with a lid. The teabags are popped in and then water added on top.  I keep adding water until the tea is a medium colour.  Then I discard them and add fresh used bags.  This also sits on the kitchen windowsill.  The used bags are then composted. This was a tip passed on from my Aunty Betty (my uncle Basil's second wife).  They for many years ran a busy bed and breakfast on the Skegness Road about six miles out of Lincoln, called "The Blackbirds".  The property was always surrounded by fantastic flowers in hanging baskets, window boxes and tubs and the flowers and plants in the borders of the garden were also stunning.   My uncle and aunt ran a smallholding from the premises as well. They had a house cow, chickens and...

I need to get more organised on the food front.  I cook most days but I think I can be better organised than I have been.  I am looking to rescue more time so that I can do more preserving or indeed crafting and sewing. I had thought to make up a couple of good meals and store them in the fridge and so in effect batch cook every third day.  I will however need to locate some of my very large kilner jars and also some of my storage containers and some of my pyrex ware to do this.  I had thought to keep a couple of jars of ready freshly prepared soup in the fridge so that if OH and I are ships in the night that there is something decent in the fridge for him to snaffle and warm up.  He is not so fond of soup although will eat it.  I however am quite content with some nice bread and a bowl of good soup which I always find very filling.  I have since found my jars and there is fresh mixed veg soup and chicken soup sitting in the fridge read...

Is back in production.  I have started off starters for Sough Dough, have natural live yogurt on the go (plain yogurt that you can add your own fruit, jam or sauce to), have an Easy Yo flavoured yogurt from a sachet on the go (Rhubarb) as I have plans to use some of my home grown Rhubarb from the garden stewed and then served with the accompanying yogurt. That should make a nice simple pudding to finish off tomorrow night's tea. I also have wine on the go, have located a beer kit which will be prepared later on in the week.  It seems to have come from Wilkinsons although I cannot remember buying it.  Last night I also started off a ginger beer plant to make home made ginger beer.  The recipe is more or less as my Nan and Mum used to make - I just have a notated list and therefore thought it would be easier for everyone if I gave a link.  The link is here: Ginger Beer Plant 1920s recipe I am also after locating water and milk kefir grains, Kombucha Scoby a...

Now that I have the Elderflower kits under way (two of them and the demijohn's are sat on the bathroom windowsill) I am keen to get other types of wine on the go too.  A nice beverage or two I think enhances whatever meal you might be having and so much the better if you have made it yourself from scratch.  Not that we are big drinkers but we do appreciate a glass of wine with the Sunday lunch.  I am speaking of country wines here, rather than specialised wines made purely from grapes.  I think they have far more personality.  In my youth (and over the age of 18) I used to enjoy the occasional glass of red wine - usually with my Dad, but as I have aged (not like a mature wine I hesitate to say) my tolerance levels for red wine have diminished somewhat. I have plans to get some Nettle wine, Hawthorn blossom wine, some orange wine on the go as well.  On speaking with my friend BB she is looking to make some Gorse wine, so I will try and keep a look out f...

I started with what I think is a bit of a head cold on Sunday evening.  I felt quite out of sorts yesterday and although today I am a lot better it is still hanging.  I have no cold per se but have rested up and not done much for the past few days.  It is as though my head is disconnected from my body and is a separate entity entirely.  I just feel a bit out there if you know what I mean. I had to ring the Doctor's surgery this morning as our prescriptions which are on a repeat service were taken to the wrong Chemist's.  I managed to get this sorted out on the phone though, which has helped. I did go for a walk with Missy this evening.  Nowadays these walks are brief as she is suffering from old age and arthritis.  She does not know it yet but she is due to go to the Vet very soon.  She had a better day for walking today but it has been warm and the sun out although the breeze still a little cold. I have been out in the garden and hun...

In my absence, from blogging, I have created a long list at present consisting of some 189 Items of things to do.  I have for the time being closed the list, but will create a separate one to carry on with.  I have managed to do the following:  Planted up three herb planters consisting of plants in the garden already; these include: Planting up three Herb Planters/Troughs from plants already in the garden consisting of Curled Moss Parsley, Chives and Garden mint. I have sorted out some of the boxes for the kitchen equipment and made a list of the boxes yet to be sorted. Four boxes in total sorted. Have sorted out a full set of pasta bowls in three different sizes and popped them into the dresser in the dining room.  There was also a Wedgewood Wild Strawberry platter as well. I have sorted out the Herb bed, have weeded it, turned the soil and got rid of all the rubbish.  Have also got the dustbin slab sorted courtesy of OH as this had collapsed. Have pott...

One of my bug bears is an untidy kitchen sink.  Unfortunately I only have a tiny kitchen sink in this house overlooking a tiny window.  Up to now I have had far too much stuff that needs to be in the kitchen windowsill  and as a result has tipped out onto the sink itself.  Not a good result look or very practical. So an idea started to form quite soon after I had made my batch of orange cleaning vinegar.  I had found a drinks dispenser container which I had purchased from Asda last year.  I am hoping that I will be able to find something similar for also making Lemon vinegar, Rosemary Vinegar, Thyme Vinegar, Spruce Vinegar as well as Four Thieves Vinegar.  Some of these can be used for food as well as there are no other additives in them, but initially I just want these for cleaning.   As I use the cleaning vinegar quite regularly in the kitchen I wanted easy access to it and that for me is for it to sit on the windowsill.  I also hav...