TARRAGON & THYME

We have had that sweet constant gentle rain that we have needed for so long.  Hopefully it will help fatten up those autumn fruits that seem to be suffering from lack of water, but the ground and the plants oh so need it too.  Despite the rain it is still humid although the nights are starting to draw in and it is a little chillier than it has been.  Still not cold enough for the heating which will happen soon enough. Hopefully next year I will be better set up to grow my own veggies and have a couple of water butts in situ as well nothing better than rainwater for the plants and some kind of order to the garden.  Despite it having been cleared there is still an awful lot of sorting to do including the contents of HRHs shed which need sorting and if he doesn't want them need dumping at the tip.  I might get him to deal with that after his fishing trip at the weekend OH and his faithful hound are out for the count oblivious to the fact that I am tap tap ...

Well the day has turned out very differently to what I anticipated it to be.  I had planned on doing a little more housework but that was quickly put into touch when OH came home earlier than I anticipated.  I had been wanting to visit a new branch of a shop that we used to go to regularly in March called B & M which sells an awful lot of food items predominantly tinned items, sauces, mixes, condiments sauces etc at silly prices.  Shopping here in many cases you only pay about one-third of the price and if paying more no where near as much as you would pay at a supermarket.  It is very much a case of taking advantage of what is there on the day.  I tend to go every three months or so to do a top up on those items that I use a lot of.  Passata for instance 49p a large bottle.  Pink tinned salmon 80pence a tin.  The largest sized tin of Red salmon £2.50 per tin. The store sells lots of other things as well but I predominantly go for the fo...

I am enclosing the recipes together on the one post as the chart right at the bottom relates to both and gives weight in pounds and ounces and also kilos and grammes. TOMATOES IN BRINE Ingredients; 2 1/2lb/ 1 1/4 kg of small tomatoes 5 tablespoons of lemon juice or 2  teaspoons of citric acid/ 5 x 15ml spoons lemon juice or 2 x 5 ml spoons of citric acid 1 tablespoon/ 1 x 15ml salt 2 pints of water/1.2 litres of water Method; Wash the Tomatoes and pack tightly into the prepared jars.  For the brine dissolve the lemon juice or citric acid and salt in the water and pour (hot or cold depending on the process used) over the tomatoes.  Cover the jars and process according to which method you choose to use  (see the notes below).  Makes about 1 3/4 kg/4lb SOLID PACK TOMATOES Ingredients; 4 1lb/1 3/4 kgs tomatoes, skinned, halved or quartered. 4 tablespoons lemon juice or two teaspoons of citric acid/ 4 ...

That's six bottles of two different Rose wines bought in total and the peaches are in jars soaking in the wine.  I thought this would be nice to have over Christmas as well as for a tipple come towards the beginning of September when autumn traditionally starts to fall in.  I am also going to do some red wine flavoured with oranges.  Its another take on Vin d'orange where you use Sevilles but you can use the juice of different types of oranges as well.  I also intend to do versions with white wine and rose as well. I have not done the piccalilli this weekend however I have the squash and the marrows (I bought two large ones) already and onions as well as the stem ginger. As the particular recipe I am going to use again is one I actually quite like as well  I am doing at least a couple of times the recipe - I don't normally go a bundle on the usual recipe which is the River Cottage one - OH likes it though.However will see what is about...

In the Land Love magazine September edition there is a lovely article on Ginny Knox and Caro Wilson otherwise known as Wild at Heart producers of lovely different preserves mainly based on the wild produce available in this country.  The link below will take you to some of the recipes and there is a link to be joined to their mailing list.  There are various bits to their website and I thought taking you to the monthly entries on their blog and some of the recipes might be a good taster for you all to look at. http://www.wildatheartfoods.co/category/wild-food-recipes/ The main reason for me bringing this to your attention is that there is an opportunity  to win one of five copies of their cookbook which is fabulous and which I have had for sometime  called the Hedgerow Cookbook.  The link to enter the competition is www.landlove.com competition ends on 30 September 2016. The other reason I am after brambles is to have a go at some of the recip...

Its blowy and blustery outside and I am snug in the house.  Today however I have the kitchen to clean so that I can start again with the processing a little later so I am likely to be gone a little while. There is still lots to do and today is Tomato day specifically passata for all that dried pasta.  Another couple of jars have turned up so I have four jars stuffed with spaghetti, tagliatelle, spirals and ....... I also have some medium sized tomatoes to bottle whole in brine.  This is where my vintage original Kilner dual purpose jars will really come in. The are larger jars and easier to fill.  They will be ideal for making soup or adding to my passata Apricots, plums and pears, to process as well.  I think that the apricots are going to be pureed the plums I think are going to go for a nice chutney and some more plum sauce and the pears are to be bottled in syrup. Oh and mincemeat as I have some dried fruit to use up. On the wild front ...

Only teeny tiny steps but a little progress.  Some of my sweetie jars have arrived  three to be precise and so I have started loading the jars - two of with some dried pasta some tagliatelle and medium sized twists.  The third one I think I will load with spaghetti.  Its a start and as I get more I will try and add things of a similar nature - such as bread and pasta flour 00 grade - I use the Waitrose Canadian as it really brings the loaves up high in the bread machine.  Believe it or not there is only one bag of Tagliatelle and one bag of the spirals.  They are on offer at the Co-op at the moment 75p a bag which is really good in the greater scheme of things. I also stocked up on Lasagne sheets as well as they were also on offer. I do like fresh pasta but when you are busy working or have a family to feed it is often cheaper to buy in the pre-dried pasta.  It is very filling and you are not limited with the choices you can put ...