Fruity weekend

Our peach tree has been dropping almost ripe fruit for the last week or so. Rather than waste it I decided to make a batch of chutney. I chose a recipe from the Ball complete book of home preserving - Caribbean peach chutney. It smells pretty good!

 

Our neighbours down the road as usual have too many damson plums this year - so while Jerry enjoyed a refreshing dip after a hot day, I picked 2 buckets of fruit. Today it's cooler and raining, so out with the steam juicer and to work. 1 bucket gave almost 6 litres of juice. I've used 2.4 L to make jelly (9 jars) and the rest I'll preserve in the fowlers for more cordial or jam making later in the year. I'm in the process of juicing the rest

Next week my uni course starts - so I'll be working part time, gardening and preserving the harvest part time, studying part time and looking after Jerry (full time!!). So needless to say my idea of doing the weekly independence day challenge has fallen by the wayside!! I have no aspirations to be superwoman :-). I'm already thinking of dropping back to just one subject this session to ease myself back into study. After all, the tomatoes and fruit won't wait until I have time to do bottling.

I hope you've all had a good weekend

Independence Day Challenge 10/2

Plant something: Rocket, welsh red onions, daikon raddish, kale. Also transplanted cabbage, cauliflower, and kale seedlings into bigger grow-on pots

Harvest something: Tomatoes, beans, silverbeet, cabbage, plums, herbs, courgettes, runner beans

Preserve something: Bottled peaches and apricots from a local orchard and plums from home. Also dried apricots in the dehydrator.

Waste not: Fed food scraps to the worms and chickens

Want not: Preserved fruit for winter - Mmmm plum crumble and apricot pie :-). Plus stored the dried beans form the scarlet runners to use in stews.

Eat the Food: All the harvested food from above - plus home made blackcurrant jam, and using last year's honey pickled jalapeños (YUM) on Saturday night's pizza

Build community food systems: Shopped at the local farmer's market, and went to local orchard to buy fruit.

Skill up: Got a place on a Masters course - which (if I finish it!) will give me more local employment opportunities / flexibility. Probably a broad definition of skill up, but hey ho !!

Independence days challenge

A number of bloggers seem to be running challenges this year around simple living, and as I'm as susceptible to a trend as the next person I thought I'd join in Sharon's independence days challenge. It seemed appropriate as I was given the book for my birthday. Basically each Friday (although given the time difference I might be able to sneak it to Saturday!) I'll be posting an update of what I have managed to achieve in the week in the following areas:

Plant something:
Harvest something:
Preserve something:
Waste not:
Want Not:
Eat the Food:
Build community food systems:
Skill up: 

I think this kind of thing is a great idea to help focus on what you have managed to do, rather than all the things that haven't been achieved.

For more details on Sharon's challenge check out the blog link above. Or for a local version try Christine's slow living month-by-month.