Despite the best of intentions

I overslept and have not been able to get on in the dining room again.  Partly because the boxes I need to pack stuff into are dripping wet outside despite being washed and dried yesterday. The weather has been proper-back-endish here today. It is cold and damp and is currently raining with the wind getting up and then dropping again.  I think we are going to have a colder winter than we did last year at this rate.  We walked Missy and it was really cold when we were out and grey. The Rosehips clearly stood out from the bushes against the grey.  I need a dry day to go and collect them though. I need to do my yearly stock of this.  I deseed the pips, chop them in half and then dry them in the dehydrator. They are then ground down to form a powder and a little added to home made Mussli.  Alternatively, to make wine you can dry them with a slit in the side in the oven and then use to make wine when they are dry.  These are long-keeping. Come along better weather I need to get out into the hedgerow to harvest a few bits and bobs as well as acorns, larch cones, fir cones and teasels, elderberries, sloes, Rowan berries.

As the day has been so Yeuch, I have therefore got on with a few of my projects.  All has not been lost though as I am also planning some projects for next year, researching, plotting and planning little bits of this and that here and there. Prepping things round here sometimes is akin to doing a very large and complicated jigsaw puzzle.

However, I have started off the Tarragon Vinegar.

The Raspberry Vinegar.

I have bunched and strung the herbs with their dust collars, to recoup, the Rosemary, Thyme and Sage.

I have decanted the garlic powder, the Filini pasta (which can be used in soups), some other fancy pastas that I had in the cupboard have also been decanted into their new jars. The ground ginger has also gone into clean fresh storage jars (some of my ground glass vintage jars).

I hope the rain stops though as I was going to harvest my mint to make the Long-Keeping mint sauce for the pantry shelf.  However it will need to dry out before I can do this.  The post for this will be put up as quickly as I can.

I also spoke with OH about getting in the new fridges and freezer as I really need these now.  He has confirmed that we will deal with this when we come back off holiday. No point in doing so beforehand as not long before we go away.  Not having a fridge has altered my shopping habits which has severely impacted what I do and when I do it.  However it will all come out in the wash.

Prior to going on holiday I am also going to have to get the Christmas puddings and the Christmas cakes made.  I want these out of the way this year so that I can forget about them.  I normally store mine carefully wrapped in my pantry.  However you can freeze them. As long as they are cooked, wrapped carefully, (are fed in respect of the cake) and stored somewhere cool they will last a lot longer than you think they will. I have in the past managed to keep puddings from one year to another and they were delicious.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get back into the swing of things and hopefully it will not be raining.

Fingers crossed.

Catch you soon.  

Pattypan

x