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