Berry bonanza

Yep, it's berry season again, and it's going to be a cracker!

So far we have picked 10kg of berries (raspberries, brambleberries, loganberries), plus just over 2kg of redcurrants. Blackcurrants will be picked before Xmas. I've frozen some berries, but today to sheer volume decreed that jam making was in order.

Out with my jam bible - Marguerite Patten's the basic basics series book on jams, jellies and chutneys. I spied a variation in the loganberry jam section for loganberry and cherry jam. That sounded pretty good, and I happened to have a kilo of cherries in the fridge.

Half an hour later 2kg of fruit and sugar became 10 jars of jam (I made a double batch). Looking forward to trying it once it has set (it tasted pretty good warm!). It has an amazing colour.

Recipe from Marguerite Patten's the basic basics series book on jams, jellies and chutneys

• 450g loganberries
• 450g cherries (weight when pitted)
• 900g sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Put the loganberries and water in a pan and warm on a lowish heat until the juice just starting to run. Add the cherries and heat until the fruit is soft. Add sugar and lemon juice and stir over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Turn up the heat, and boil until setting point reached. Leave to stand a few minutes and stir to distribute fruit. Put into jars and process as per your normal method.

Yes, I still have a garden!

But it is going to be a lot smaller this year, as we were away until October so missed the main tomato/chilli/eggplant/capsicum seedling raising months. I did buy some plants at a local charity market, but not as many as I would normally grow from seed. It feels really weird to only have one bed of tomato plants!

I will probably only have about half of the beds in production this year for several reasons

• work plus study means I have to scale back my garden ambitions
• it will take a few more months to weed and rejuvenate some of the other beds
• we are planning to move a few things around in the autumn, and redo the fruit cage so I'm deliberately not doing anything with some of the beds

To fill in the gap we're getting a weekly organic veg box again this year from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) family farm about 10k away. Can't argue with those food miles!

This overgrown mess is what almost all the beds looked like when we came back from holidays...although the garlic beds were looking in better shape!

New plantings - eggplant, chilli and capsicum, and lettuce and basil, with a few sugar snap pea seeds that hopefully will germinate soon.

The tomato cages are back in use again. This year I have planted tommy toe, black russian, mortgage lifter, another beefsteak variety, and two paste type tomatoes whose exotic names I can't remember!

Cucumber, herbs and a zucchini. On the right is the red table grape - this is the best it has ever looked in 5 years, and it has loads of fruit on it.

 

In spite of some curly leaf (I wasn't around to spray in time), the veg patch yellow peach tree is laden with fruit. Lovely! The other white peach in the mini-orchard is far less impressive. To the right are the raspberries and brambleberries - both promise to give us a good few months of berry delights.

 

It's berry and currant season again

15 jars of jelly made so far, so only just beginning.......

Wobble-licious

Apple juice, gelatine leaves, brambleberries, and these directions

Too easy!

The beginning of berry madness 2010

Well, brambleberry madness has started - Jerry picked just over 6 kg last night so needless to say I've been cooking today - I only managed a berry tea cake and some just under 3L of berry cordial - that only took care of 2kg of berries, and I froze about 1kg. I'll need to make some more jam tomorrow

The 7 year scarlett runner beans from last year that re-sprouted a month or so ago have started producing beans - picked just over 1/2 kilo today.  It's nice to finally be getting something from the garden after the spring "hungry gap"

Redcurrants and Jam

I finished making the redcurrant vinegar over the weekend - after soaking 1.5kg of redcurrants in 900ml white wine vinegar for a week and then letting them drain overnight. Next step was to add 450g of sugar for each 600ml of vinegar, warm to let sugar dissolve and then boil for about 8 minutes. Let cool and bottle in sterilised bottles. Lovely colour isn't it? Will let you know how it tastes

Tis also the season to make jam out of the unused berries in the freezer to make way for the new crop. We were also down to our last few jars of jam as well. So over the weekend I made 8 jars of brambleberry jam and 6 of raspberry jam

The weather wasn't that good either (cold, wet and windy) so in between jam making on sunday I re-watched Harry Potter 1, 2 and 3 and did some knitting.

Brambleberry Semifreddo

I adapted this recipe from one in Australian Good Food magazine in Nov 2009. Theirs was called "double cherry semifreddo". I used brambleberries (as we still have a few kg in the freezer and the plants are flowering abundantly for this year's crop already.

• 1kg berries - I think any berry type fruit would work well
• 200ml thickened or pure (thick) cream (the bulla one) & 200g cream cheese (original recipe called for 400ml thickened cream only)
• 2/3 cup icing sugar
• 4 eggs, separated

Line a smallish loaf pan with plastic wrap (I used a 400g loaf bred tin). Bring berries, cream and cream cheese to boil (just) and then simmer for 5 mins until softened. Whizz in a blender when slightly cooled and pass through a sieve to remove seeds.

Whisk a bit of this mix into egg yolks while still hot, then pour back in to fruity cream and then cook on low heat for 5-10 mins stirring all the time until the mix thickly coats the back of a spoon. Strain again into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap - on the surface of the custard mix not over the bowl - to avoid a skin forming and leave to go completely cold.

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold in completely cold berry custard a bit at a time - careful not to knock all the air out. Pour into tin and freeze overnight. Of course I forgot to take a pic of the completed item, but the magazine pic is a good approximation.

I quite enjoyed the bit of 'tart'ness that the cream cheese gave the overall flavour. But I'm sure all cream woudl be decadent and lovely. This was super-easy and quick to make. Highly recommended for berry season!

It's all happening at M & J's this week

Phew!  It's all happening here at the moment! Today I

• made brambleberry cordial - cheated by using the steam juicer to make the juice. MUCH easier than fiddling with muslin bags etc, and the chickens are overjoyed with the leftover berry pulp

• made cherry chutney - it's SO tedious pitting 2kg of cherries - but when it's $8 for 2kg of seconds you need to just do it :)
• finished making the raspberry vinegar
• made rapsberry jam (Jerry picked 900g yesterday! it's a bumper berry year)
• sorted my garlic and hung the good cloves in bunches to dry further. The ones that won't keep we will eat first
• made a jar of pickled garlic

Doesn't look like much, but that took care of 5 hours this morning.

Meanwhile the great pantry renovation started this week. We're extending our laundry/pantry/utility room into where Jerry's wardrobes are to give us more food (and general) storage space, as well as space for a bigger chest freezer, given that we now buy almost all our meat in bulk. The first stage meant moving ALL Jerry's clothes, and all the food and jars from the pantry out of their respective homes. That took us from this:

to this:

Of course, all the bottles and jars of stuff had to go somewhere...so my new pantry is now down the other end of the house. It's going to be a bit chaotic for a few weeks until it all gets done, but it will mean so much more storage. Most of Jerry's clothes are now in either "my" wardrobe, or in a temporary wardrobe.

Luckily our guests between Xmas and New Year spent about 6 months living out of a trailer-tent whilst touring Australia, so I'm hoping this means they won't feel too claustrophobic with all this clutter at "their" end of the house!

What's happening in the garden?

Summer already! It's hard to believe, although thankfully in the last few weeks the weather has been more springlike with mid 20s and lovely cool mornings and evenings.

I've harvested the garlic, and the 'good bug mix' flowers are coming along really well in the orchard.

We wont be short of berries this year, and we harvested 1.8kg of redcurrants yesterday.........

Yacon and oca, with lettuce and giant red mustard going to seed in the background. The violas look pretty under the peach tree.

Potatoes, capsicum and eggplant, and a costa romanesque courgette

It's been a great year for sugar snap and snow peas, and the rest of the potatoes are storming along

The tomatoes look great, and the first fruits are forming on them.

I'm hopeful for my bean crop this year - I've planted scarlet runner, several climbing varieties, as well as a number of bush varieties for fresh and drying. So far so good!  I've also let some carrots go to seed again this year as they did wonders in attracting beneficial insects last year, as well as looking pretty. The seed seems to be viable as well, as we're had carrots popping up in all sorts of interesting places  this year :)