September's catchup ...

Toadstools in the woods

 (Belatedly) September saw everyone heading back to school and one to college and us getting used to a different, quieter routine with plenty of work in the day and family time squished into busy evenings.

We scrounged medlars from a friend which are now happily maturing on the driveway ...

Medlar

Canned green beans and a token egg :~)

 I had another go at canning allotment produce, this time it was green french beans. I tried raw packing them and it was so easy! Basically, just heat the clean jars in the oven, wash and chop the beans straight into the hot jars. Fill with boiling water and process in the canner. Simples :~) I haven't tried them yet but they look wonderful ... every time I look at them I think of winter stew and dumplings.

I'm really pleased about the beans after the goldengage (not-quite-a) disaster because this was exactly what I bought the canner for ... to preserve our allotment gluts cheaply, easily and not worry about it taking up precious freezer space. Have you ever frozen homegrown beans? Bleugh ... the canned ones look far better!

Next year, I'll be growing about five times the amount at least!

September seedhead

Blue sky and autumn sun

 We've had plenty of woodland walks and foraged plenty ... one walk saw two buckets filled to the brim with crabapples! If you fancy trying out some crabapple jelly, look here.

So, far there have been about three lots of crabapple foragings and about 11 or 12 jars of jelly. The last lot was combined with rosehips in a beautiful autumnal mixture of goodness :~) The recipe was baed on the usual crabapple one (mentioned above) but just used part rosehips weight for weight.

Rosy crabapple

Crabapple nibbled by a grateful mouse ... so sweet!

Rosehips

Sunset

 We've had some splendid autumn storms with rainbows, the tail end of a hurricane and torrential rain.

Rainbow after the storm

Stormy sky

Stormy sunset

Rain-drenched lane

Watercress soup

 I visited a local farmshop to buy ten bunches of watercress (yes, ten) and found that they sold raw cream ... wonderful, so buttery.

We've also been frantically seed saving ... peas, borlotti beans and wartime heirloom beans. There's something deeply satisfying and soul-pleasing about seed saving and generally squirreling the harvest away :~)

Wartime heirloom beans ... love the colour!

 We also scrounged a fair few damsons off a friend to make damson jam. It took many hours to make but was so worth it! Perfect in rice pudding ...

New young lettuce plants

Super strong homebrewed cider :-)

You will need:
5 litres of cheap 100% (unsweetened) apple juice, or equivalent. Last autumn we scrumped apples and bought a cheapish juicer (around £20) to juice them which was much more satisfying than buying the juice!
1 cup of sugar, any type. I use a mug to measure (half a bag)
1 heaped tsp brewing yeast
1 gallon demijohn with airlock

1. Pour 3 litres of the apple juice into a demijohn, make sure you dont
add it all straight away as it froths quite a bit at the start of brewing,
due to the action of the yeast.

2. Add a heaped teaspoon of yeast into the demijohn, super yeast or turbo
yeast is better, as it makes the alcohol content higher. Normal brewers
yeast is fine as well.

Give it a good stir or shake around so the ingredients get mixed
together.

Place it somewhere warm and after several hours it should start to bubble
or froth up.

3. Bung in the airlock and place it in a warm place. It should start to
get quite active and start to bubble away, sometimes even frothing. When
this stage has calmed down, normally after a couple of days, add the rest
of the apple juice until the demijohn is nearly full.

4. Now just leave it until it stops bubbling, which means fermentation has
stopped.

5. Let it clear for a day or so, then it can be put into other bottles
(racked off) or poured straight into a mug and drank :-)

The turnaround for this brew can be a week, or a bit longer, depending on
how much sugar content there is in the apple juice. Some people add a
couple of teaspoons of honey to each demijohn at the start of bre
cinnamon sticks, or cloves. Last time we added 15 whole cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half which worked very well.

Other recipes advise to gently warm a cup of applejuice, then add the
teaspoon of yeast to that, just to get the yeast started, then after an
hour or so tip the whole cupfull of mixture into the demijohn.

Just remember that if you use the turbo yeast, it will make a very strong
brew!!!!!!! Some of ours has come out at 18%! If it is too strong, just dilute it with lemonade :-)


Enjoy xxx