Yet again, the kitchen has been fruity and steamy (ooh er, missus...) as I am determined to get my money's worth out of my jam-making kit!
Last Sunday we took a walk along to the ruins of the old Newhouses slums, and went foraging along the path to Arrowthwaithe Woods. We found plenty of rosehips and hawthorn berries, but the crab apples were out of reach and, disappointingly, there are no elderberry bushes in the area at all that we could find. We collected some hips and haws, and on Monday morning I set about combining them with our foraged blackberries (gathered before the 1st October when the Devil spits on them!) and yet more of next doors' apples to produce a few jars of Hedgerow Jelly.
And yesterday Dave went out into the garden and brought in the final harvest - some (mostly green) tomatoes, and a couple of peppers which I combined with apples and onions to make 'Last Pickings' Chutney. It was lovely to smell the fruits and the spices and the onions mingling with Aspall Cider Vinegar (from Suffolk, close to my roots!) and I would recommended chutney-making to anyone suffering from congestion - I don't think my sinuses knew what had hit them!
In all there are 14 jars of jams, jellies marmalades and chutneys in the pantry and my husband is muttering about needing to put up more shelves...!
Hello Sally,
ReplyDeleteLoved your post, I have been thinking of making some chutney, I has quite a lot of green tomatoes this year. Hope you enjoyed looking back at your old snaps, It's always a nice thing to do isn't it ...Em xxx