'Tis the Season to be Jammy

It's the end of the summer, so we have a lot of left over produce in the garden that needs to be preserved for the coming months.

We had a great year for figs, apples and tomatoes and also had a lot of excess radishes, zucchinis and cucumbers that needed to be used up. 

Our first day of preserving went a lot better than expected, with a batch of zucchini chutney and "fancy fig fumble" whipped up in a day.

First of all, we needed to collect our produce, and my favourite thing to collect was figs, being only the second time I had ever seen ripe figs on the tree, I was very excited. The first time we went out, we collected two baskets overflowing with them. We decided fig jam would be a great way to use them all up before they went off. In our first batch, we peeled and quartered the figs, and added a few cooking apples for some natural pectin, as well as some jam sugar, and simmered them for an hour or so, until the consistency was jam like and put into sterilised jars. 

 

Having never jarred anything, we sought advice from our fellow volunteers and found a good method in washing the jars in hot water, microwaving the jars for 30 seconds, placing the jam inside and turning them upside down and tapping the bottom, as Max had seen his grandfather do, of them seemed to be a good method, and all of our jars sealed very well. 

We didn't really get to see if it was sterilised enough to last over a period of time, as the jam was so popular, we are currently consuming the last jar. The same day, we started on chutney, made from tomatoes and zucchini from the garden, with a few apples again for the pectin. Also quite a success. We followed much the same process as for the jam, but added some vinegar, salt pepper and herbs. 

A few days later, we found a neglected patch of vegetables, that consisted mainly of red radishes, that were quite overgrown and definitely in need of being picked. As radishes are not really any of our favourite snack, I decided to experiment with radish relish. For that I cleaned and diced the radishes, added some onion and garlic and apple, again for the pectin, and vinegar, salt and sugar. Cooked it all up for about 40 minutes and jarred it. This one has not proved to be the favourite of the group, but still quite delicious, and it is a nice colour, so that's a good point... 

We found we had too many apples to be used up entirely by being put into chutney and jam, so also made some apple sauce. For that, I simply peeled, cored and diced the apples, added some sugar, quite a bit in this case as the apples are quite tart, and some cinnamon. I cooked it all up, until is was mushy and delicious and jarred it, making sure not to forget the tapping of the bottom of the jars, which by now had become quite a ritual of the group with everyone getting involved. We also made some apple juice from them, we simply juiced the apples, heated the juice up to 80 degrees and put into sterilised bottles.

With the cucumbers, we found they were a bit too sour to eat in salads and the like, and we had far to many to use them all for this anyway, so we decided to make some pickles. To pickle them, all I did, was sterilize the jars, sliced the cucumbers, some in rounds, some in sticks, placed into the jars and covered with various pickling spices, mixing them up for each jar. I tried some with cardamom pods and star anise, as we had quite a few of these in the cupboard, and they worked quite well. After that, I just topped the jars with vinegar and put them in the fridge. Some I diluted the vinegar for, but this was more because of a lack of vinegar at hand, and some I left straight, and all jars were delicious and quite a hit. We even made cheeseburgers one day with our own pickles, which was quite exciting.

As our poly tunnel is basically full of tomatoes, we realised we needed to get on with more relishes, and made a really good one from just tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs from the garden, vinegar and salt and pepper. We basically just cooked it for a couple of hours until it was thick and the colour was darker. It took a bit longer than we had hoped, but the end result was so good it was worth it. We also made some pasta sauce style tomatoes by simply cutting them all up, adding onion and garlic and cooking. Once cooked we just put them in freezer bags and froze, ready for an easy addition to meals. Quite a useful addition around here as there are always a lot of mouths to feed and frankly, there are only so many things you can eat relish and chutney on.

After a few weeks of preserving fun, our fig tree was full of ripe figs again, so out we went to collect some more, with the intention of making more fig jam, as the first batch went down so well. We spent the morning picking and slicing the figs, deciding to experiment with leaving the skin on this time and cooked them up, much in the same fashion as the last time, once it was almost complete, we went to add some cinnamon to the jam to make it delicious, and after putting a couple of large spoonfuls in, realised the smell was a bit off... we checked the jar and it was definitely cinnamon, but after closer inspection, realised someone had topped up the cinnamon jar with curry powder! Thinking quickly, we decided to add some vinegar, salt and pepper and tried to make it into some chutney. It was quite a disappointing end to a whole day of hard work in the anticipation of jam, but the chutney is still nothing to be sneezed at. 

After almost a month of collecting, preserving, and of course consuming, the garden is becoming barren and we are preparing to turn it all over ready for some winter crops. It has been a fun and very educational experience and we now have some delicious produce to keep us going a little while at least. Now to plan the garden ready for preserving for next year...

Loo With A View

With the development of a new kitchen and shower area in the yard, we are in need of a toilet too. I put a few ideas together, mostly a mix between an outside toilet I used while helpxing in Asturias, and the existing toilets used by the campers here and came up with the Cerenety volunteer 'Loo with a view'.

 As with all of our projects, we firstly had to see what materials were to hand that we could use. In this case it was a few solid pallets and some roofing wood, which was all in good enough order to build with and already a nice size when pieced together to make a toilet cubicle. With the sterling help of Dazzer, a pallet floor was set out on paving slabs to keep it off the ground and the structure was built up; a pallet wide on all sides and two pallets high. We left the top half of the front wall open to create the view  through the trees in front and out over the fields. 

We decided to have just two posts in the structure to preserve our timber supply and because in the sheltered place that it sits it does not need to be all that well anchored to the ground. These posts sit on the side of the building and form the door frame. The pallets were all fixed to each other and to the posts with screws, coming together nicely, and certainly seemed strong enough for their intended purpose. 

The door was reclaimed from an old shed, we used hinges that were taken off the old cattle trailer back in the spring and the roofing material was a couple of offcuts from another roofing project. Once we fixed all of these in place it was time to consider the toilet itself. For this I employed the help of Jess, another volunteer here well known for her upholstering skills. I painted up an old steel chair frame and fixed on a toilet seat, the back of the chair was upholstered by Jess in a rather majestic yellow and black striped material. This frame would house the composting container in much the same way as the ones used up in the camping field. It turned out to be a comfortable sit.

The finishing touches were a lick of paint to make the whole thing last that bit longer and a toilet roll holder. We also installed a shelf, which amongst other things will hold a pair of binoculars so the user can really make the most of their time answering the call of nature by looking out over the fields to see what wildlife is in the area. 

 

All in all the project took twelve hours to complete - obviously this included a fair few tea breaks. It is always satisfying to start and finish a project in one day, and it could not have been done without the help and advice of Dazzer (master pallet craftsman), Jess (accomplished upholsterer) and Celli (champion roofer).

Cerenety Stoup

Well, it's been a rather hectic year and that is the reason for the lack of blog posts. But... from now on I have come up with the genius idea of having volunteers do a weekly blog themselves about what is going on at Cerenety. That way, not only can I be lazy and disorganised but we get to see things from the views of different cultures, nationalities, ages and ideas. So here's the first one from our very own Australian James McDonald.

For last night’s dinner Ben, one of the other volunteers here at Cerenity, and I decided to create a soup completely out of fruits, vegetables and other edible organic matter growing onsite. With a great deal of enthusiasm we collected as much of a variety of ingredients as possible hoping that our one-pot wonder would provide a tasty treat for the other volunteers. And, as it turned out, it was amazing!

Our soup contained;

• Potatoes from the vegetable patch,
• Tomatoes from the polytunnel,
• Some cooking apples,
• Garlic from the vegetable patch,
• Blackberries from the hedges,
• Mushrooms found in the field,
• Courgettes from the vegetable patch,
• Carrots from the vegetable patch,
• Chives from the herb garden,
• Coriander from the herb garden,
• Nettle Leaves growing around the vegetable patch,
• and some kale.

So ALL of the ingredients come from the ground of the camp site grounds. All together and chopped up it looked like this…

Once it was all chopped up and chucked in the Dutch Oven we filled it with water to cover and left it to cook for an hour over a fire using a fire tripod.

We then sat there in the rain around the fire watching our meal cook. It was a massive success, everyone enjoyed it and we decided to call it ‘Cerenity Stoup’ because we don’t quite know if it is a soup or a stew. It was immensely satisfying knowing that our ‘stoup’ was completely derived from the land so it is needless to say that we will try to do more of these meals in the future.

A BIT BLOGGED OFF.

I don't do depression… I’ve never asked the doc for happy pills… and I’ve never wanted to spend the

day with the curtains drawn… BUT THERE IS A LIMIT, and I think the British weather this summer may be it!!!  

I now I understand why my friends called their baby NOAH, they clearly foresaw something the rest of us did not.

So yes, my veg and fruit have survived in their raised beds but the spinach "bolted" before 

you could say Popeye, the peas were full of Eastern Promise (otherwise known as a

damp squib)  and if I catch that blackbird snacking on my precious strawberries once more,

it won't be juice dribbling down his fine feathers!

And breathe… Hello everybody, how are you? I’ve had my rant so I'll now focus on the divine area where the weather that God has graciously bestowed on England this summer is unable to penetrate: The Polytunnel.

I’m convinced that the autumn is going to be filled with long sun soaked afternoons and warm lazy evenings… oh no, you can't keep me down for long.

So in the spirit of optimism and moving on, although the tomatoes are still green they are alive, and I have decided to replant, just in case. Agreed, the only thing I can plant out right now is RICE but all my little tomato beauties will be ready when the cloud breaks (notice I used the singular there, it is only one, joined-up enormous, all-covering, grey, drizzly  blanket) NO, NO, mustn't dwell…

Another success story, (sorry cross out another) is the herbs. Thank you Lord. It has to be said that the perfume and taste really raises the spirit. Of course a couple of glasses of Vin Rouge would probably have a similar result but thankfully the pollytunnel allows the effect from the herbs to last a little longer. I am trying to convince myself that my fine herb patch is gardening in miniature. Screw up your eyes and the parsley becomes hydrangea, tarragon turns to willow, thyme transforms into honeysuckle and basil… a palm tree?!

Yep, not depressed-----just absolutely 101% totally mad.

Must go, the oven is the only place for my head… Dam, only got a microwave J I will have to make do with cooking myself some herbilicious microwaved concoction.

Didasgonetoseeda

ps. I wrote this blog yesterday when the wind was howling and the rain was beating down. Amazingly the weather is beautiful now and the BBC says that it will be for a while. I have therefore added photos from today, full of sunshine and joy

So as the mad rush of spring and everything that comes with it draws to and end, I thought I'd take a look back over April, May and June. Spring at Cerenety gets all the animals a little frisky. We have mating alpacas, rowdy rabbits and horny hens,... we have ewes giving birth, orphan lambs to bottle feed, baby rabbits popping out here there and everywhere, rescue baby crows and goats with false pregnancies. Whoever said living in the countryside was an education certainly got it right!

So how did we do? Well I'll start from the very beginning: 

We're hoping that our visiting male stud alpaca, Adam lived up to his name and our 2 females are currently with child (or with alpaca). Attempting to wrestle Adam back into the van after he had 'done the deed' is an experience I'll never forget. Thanks to our big, strong volunteer Daren, we managed to 'tame the beast' and get him home. The gestation period of alpacas is 11 months, so we're hoping that they'll be due sometime around March 2013.

The rabbits and chickens don't take so long, they start in spring and give birth in spring, so we currently have tiny baby rabbits and a host of chicks. Somehow one of the eggs managed to roll underneath our sitting duck, who was extremely confused when a chicken hatched out from underneath her. We are therefore rearing 'Chuck' (an ingenious name thought up by my aunt combining chick and duck!) in a slipper in the house. She/He is doing very well, if a little baffled by it's parentage.

Our own lambs that were born on site are doing fabulously. Their mums Mini and Nancy, which were our first orphans from 4 years ago, are brilliant. Farmers often take the smallest lamb away if a ewe has triplets but we were able to leave Mini with all of hers as she has lots of milk and has looked after them extremely well.

Our orphan lambs finally seem strong and healthy now. Unfortunately we had some fatalities which always happens when you're raising orphans, however we have also had some miracles. Over the last few months Lambzilla has suffered from eye infections, joint infections and parasites, but with some medication, much work and A LOT of love and attention from everyone here at Cerenety, he seems to have come through the worst of it and is now running around the field, bleating pitifully at all passing campers in order to get cuddles. We also have Dotty, Heatie, Cleo and Tommy, all of which have now been weened and are strong and healthy.

Finally our goats, Gertie and Daisy suddenly started fighting one day last week, which was very odd as they are usually joined at the hip. We discovered that Gertie was having a false pregnancy. We therefore decided to get a Billy goat to cover both our females, giving us kids next spring and more importantly a never ending supply of warm frothy milk. So yesterday we went to Holsworthy to pick up a 3 month old billy goat. We have named him Willy the Billy, and he's very happily munching hay in one of the stables as I type.

So... after the craziness of spring, I'm ready for what the summer will bring. Ponies to train, sheep to shear and Flipper to play with. The fun never stops!

Celli

The Fruit and Veg Have Arrived

After long weeks working knee deep in mud and under the torrential rain of the winter, creating a new and improved vegetable patch, it's all starting to come together now that summer is on the way. We've (well my aunt) has planted copious amounts of fruit and veg, a huge strawberry patch and a nursery of plants and young trees. Everything is now blossoming, fruiting and lots of it is ready to eat.

Peas, spinach, lettuce, herbs, garlic, onions and (my favorite) strawberries are coming up by the dozen. I've stopped bothering cooking for breakfast and lunch and taken to just sitting in the vegetable patch and munching on anything that looks remotely edible.

Now I'm looking forward to beef and cherry tomatoes, courgettes, asparagus and a hole host of 'surprise veg' that Dida has forgotten she planted.

Borage the Companion Herb

At the beginning of the year, we have a meeting and I'm told what I am allowed to plant in my veggie patch.

Then I go and  order exactly what takes my fancy!!  and once I "hit" the herb catalogue I am transported from the cold February reality to warm, fuzzy days of summer, when the aromas of basil and coriander make it a pleasure to

to get out the biggest pasta pot and invite everyone over.

As  you can tell, the catalogue is my downfall!  I am now wondering what made me want to plant... Borage for instance. What magic was it that the seed supplier used, for me to tick the "buy" box ?? Well, with the help of good old google now I remember.......Are you sitting comfortably ?  Then I'll begin:

Think of Pimms, Iced Tea, Summer soups or salads topped with tasty dressings. Borage leaves enhance

all these and the perfect blue flower, frozen into the drinks ice cubes give a soft honey flavour.

Of course I need all the help I can get to convince the "Doubting Thomases" here, that the spinach, peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc etc. were worth planting and the dear little Borage accompanying them as nurse and companion will help. And this is why I've popped them in between everything else and hope they have a good bedside manner.

As a medicinal herb, the benefit list is long and varied, used to help with problems from coughs and colds, to menopause and much more. 

So, money well spent, this little star is a gift from the Gods and now I can sound like a "know it all" if anyone asks me about it... I just won't tell them, that really I simply fell in love with a picture of perfect blue flowers and imagined it's head nodding at me from  my garden. Oh joy !

Didaweeder X

ps. Thank you so much to our volunteers Steve and Marie who went out and bought me the Colin's Book of Herbs whilst I was scratching my head trying to remember what on earth Borage was!