Saturday, June 28, 2014

Allotment hours worked. Me 37 He 29

Wow - I have had a busy week up the allotment - fruit picking!

I have at least 25-30lb of strawberries in my freezer.  We have eaten pounds - literally over the past few weeks, and I have made lots of pots of strawberry jam for those winter days - you can't beat a thick slice of toast on a winters evening lathered with butter and strawberry jam.

My black currant and red currant harvest at the plot has  been negligible - my fault entirely. This time last year Mr Lottie was so seriously ill and when it came to harvesting my fruit bushes I resorted to cutting off their branches, and bringing them home so that I could pick  them here and look after Mr L. So this year there is almost zero berries -well just a couple of ice cream tubs full.

The strawberries have more than made up for the shortfall though.  I picked and froze another batch of 13 lb of strawberries, and have a couple of ice cream tubs full for desserts in the fridge.

Mixed with other meager pickings of various odd berries here and there I managed to make another four and a half pounds of scrummy mixed berry  jam.  It is made of strawberries, black currants, raspberries, red currants, jostaberries, gooseberries and loganberries.
 All of which the birds would have eaten.
 It tastes so scrummy - yes I do confess to scraping out the jam pan
and eating the 'dregs'.  Well you just have to don't you!

And froze another batch of 12.5 lb of strawberries
I check over each strawberry, clean them etc. Cut the huge ones in half
then open freeze them on large metal trays.  
Once frozen I use a spatula to loosen them off the trays and pack them in 1lb bags.

I have taken the netting off all the remainder of my berries - I just can't keep picking it, so the  birds or whoever can help themselves!

It hammered it down with rain over night and today - so I feel very virtuous at having spent the hours I did this week up the lottie - and makes it all worthwhile!

 

1 comment:

  1. I love that you willingly share your berries with wildlife. Some people are so greedy with it and quibble over every berry or nut eaten by the critters. An acquaintance actually shoots the squirrels that eat *his* pecans. :(

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