Harvest has started

August 16, 2020

It’s that season again, fruit and veg is all getting ripe together. That means lots of picking and preparing. This year I have decided to actually try bottling some of the fruit, starting with apples. This started with me to ring a recipe to make spiced crab apple pie filling. As I don’t eat crab apple jelly this sounded really appealing. It sounds like the time in the bottle helps mellow the crab apples, and I love the idea of storing the apples on a shelf not the freezer. Yes I do know what I need to invest in is an apple rack, but that won’t be this year. So today we settled down and tried a first batch of bottled apple. It actually wasn’t as time consuming as I had feared, and we made it a family project which helped. I am very impressed by rinsing the cut apple in brine to keep its colour. I had always used lemon juice and that sort of works, brine is amazing. We have some really beautiful stewed apple from the bit that didn’t fit in the jars. We only wanted to process full jars.

Unfortunately,  I didn’t get the cooking stage quite right and they overflowed. So although the jars have sealed there is air in them so they won’t keep, this week will involve apple crumble I think. Possibly some more stewed apple too. It has however taught me a lot. I understand what I need to look for and I think how to avoid the problem in future. I also think I will use smaller pieces so they will pack nicer too.

It looks like the rhubarb season is pretty much over but the last of It is stashed in the freezer. Last year’s saw us through so fingers crossed this will too. We would miss our rhubarb icecream. This week is Tets birthday so expect a lot of baking, I am hoping to make it special despite us being at home.

Other than baking I have made good progress with my longarming. Possibly too much actually. Ruler work is hard on my hands, but it can also be quite satisfying too. To change how I was moving I also made progress with my knitting. Yup, I am still working on my lockdown scarf. I need to keep plugging away at it if I want to wear it this winter.

Fenrir has had an amazing weekend. He is really starting to understand his rules and so is getting more freedom. For the first time he has had run of most of the downstairs. He managed it really well,  it chasing the cats, not going up the stairs. His only struggle was excitement, which is an on going issue and completely understandable for his age, especially when lockdown has messed up his socialization so much. It is frustrating but we just have to work with it. I suspect it has given me a better appreciation  of how children must be struggling. Also how the parents must struggle, I am guessing the overexcitement with anything new is probably common across species. My hunch is he will be a bit behind where we wouldhave expected for his age but he will get there eventually.

I guess I shouild try to get some sleep, I need to be up and with it in the morning for the next step in the quilt.