TARRAGON & THYME

Many people wish to get hold of fresh yeast from time to time. I have been lucky up until now, but had problems getting hold of this as the store I get it from had run out. I also think they may be selling up in the not too distant future, so it may well be I will be utilising this link myself too. By chance I found this link the other day for those of you wishing to obtain a supply of fresh yeast for breadmaking . You can keep this in the fridge, but I would suggest freezing the same in ready portions to maximise your usage and expense. It works out at £4.77 for a 500 g block. This link also shows various other different yeasts some of which are suitable for wine and beer making. I hope that this is of assistance to you all The link is http://amazon.co.uk Then on the search facility type in: Kitchen & Home then type in yeast. Hope this helps Pattypan xx

There are a few things that I would like to get done this week, although I don't want to over-extend myself at all, so we will start small and if I manage to get these done then at least will have an opportunity to add some more to the list. Make the Seville Orange Marmalade. Make Lemon Marmalade. Make Pumpkin Marmalade Do the ironing [part done 25.01.10] Make the crab apple and cranberry jelly (frozen cranberries) Knit at least another square for the knitted throw/blanket. [started] Pot up the Amaryllis kit I was bought for Christmas. Pot up the Paper Whites kit that I was bought for Christmas. Start off a fresh ginger beer kit. [done 25.01.10] Cut some more strips for my denim clippie rug. Pheasant Casserole for tomorrow night (was still frozen tonight) Did this last night before I went to bed - got it on the go. Added, home dried mushrooms, leeks, carrots, peas, the remains of the gravy from Sunday lunch, mixed herbs, teaspoon of marmite, thyme, parsnip, marigold vegetable pow...

Its been quite a leisurely day today, nothing to strenuous, more washing and drying done - have the ironing to do tomorrow night. After making a start on organising some of my seeds into plastic sleeves for my Lever Arch folder we sat and watched a biography programme on Mark Knoppfler. OH and I both like his music a lot. It was quite apt actually as I had bought OH his latest single as part of his Christmas present and it turned out a couple of the songs played were actually on the album which I had bought him. After that finished we sat and listened to the CD. It was extremely good. Really shows the influence of Folk and other types of music on his life. It was a case of one man and his dog after that. I then de-frocked the freezer of some items for tea. I took out some lamb chops, carrots,cauliflower, a pheasant, some red cabbage, some pumpkin, some French Pate, and some plums, all for use either today or for the next couple of meals during the week. I always make my own mint jelly...

I am currently trying to organise load of bits and bobs into a Lever Arch file(s) in order of month. I have put dividers in From January to December and any snippets of information relevant for an individual month including recipes, food in season, wild fruits and offerings in season, gardening bits and bobs, winemaking, beer making etc. etc.is being put under the relevant section. Well thats the plan, sort an extension of my diary really but very much work in progress. Will be sort of a check list of what I can actually do that month, but whether I actully do it is open to the vagaries of life and of course whether I can afford to do it or not. I thought that I would take this strategy a step further and try and organise my seed collection, which currently has no rhyme or reason to it, and is just shoved in a box. I therefore thought that I would put the relevant seed packets into plastic sleeves under the relevant months. Where there are a couple of months where the seeds can be...

Its been cold again, very cold, and after the period of snow, its nice to see a bit of sunshine now and again, but today alas was not one of them, its been cold and grey and last night it chucked it down with rain. Its weather like this that tends to make my arthritis flare up - and for this past fortnight I haven't been too bad, so will just have to keep myself warm. If I go cold - I find it very difficult to warm up again. Its been a long old week and I still have the remains of the dreadful cold bug that has been tooing and froing in our neighbourhood, but I am a lot better than I was. However it has left me very tired, so I haven't done very much today apart from pottering around doing housewifely chores, i.e. the washing machine has been whirring away, load after load, closely followed by the tumble drier. Now it is fixed it is working much more efficiently at drying its contents. I managed to watch a programme I had recorded during the week, My Dream Farm with Monty D...

A message for Blakefawc You seem to have posted a message to me - unfortunately I have been unable to read it. If you would please like to try again - I was having problems with blogger yesterday evening so this might be the reason for me not being able to read the message. Thank you Pattypan

I am so sorry to have been away from my blog for a little while I have had a most horrid cold which I still haven't shifted, I have had two colds in the space of a fortnight and a half, both stinkers, the second one being a lot worse than the other. I spent two days asleep in bed off work and then went back, really before I should have done, but I am hoping am experiencing the tail end of it. Fingers crossed toes plaited. But having colds piggy back as I have has left me feeling very drained and tired and as a result I have had a few early nights to try and get myself recharged. As I tend to loiter on my blog later at night - something has had to give in order for me to rechage. To make matters worse I have been going spare as my mum was re-admitted to hospital on Thursday and I haven't been able to go anywhere near her which has driven me absolutely crackers and I only live at the end of the road. My lovely brother though has been going to visit her and has been keeping me...