When life Sends you Lemons...

Easy peasy recipe today although it's so easy I'm not sure it counts as a recipe!

I found these gorgeous Grolsch Beer bottles on their way to a bin in a house that doesn't recycle (I know, right?!?!?) and rescued them... It's taken a couple of weeks but i've managed to make something that's perfect for them - Lemon Cordial. The recipes I have say it will keep for a year but with the sixteen year old in my house I'll be lucky if it lasts until next month!

Basically dissolve sugar in freshly squeezed lemon juice (at a ratio of about 1-1.2kg sugar per litre of juice) by warming it gently until the sugar is disolved. I haven't done much experimentation here but the research i did suggested that the mixture shouldn't reach the boil. In reality the sugar disolved by the time the juice was body temperature - which is when I stopped heating it and bottled in sterile bottles. You can water bath preserve if you're pedantic but I really don't think this is necessary. Having left the cordial for a couple of hours I've decided that next time I am going to strain it before bottling - this version has separated with quite a lot of scummy lemon cells on top... Yes, I can be a silly, annoying perfectionist some days!

The sixteen-year-old did a taste test (tot of syrup and fill the glass with cold water) and gave it a massive thumbs up (in teenager that's a grunt and gulp and then pouring another for those of you who haven't got a teenager in your life...)

Best Berry Jam

I have been lucky enough to grow up in a home with an amazing kitchen and a mom who isn't all that keen on using it... This lead to making my own birthday cakes from age 12 (I didn't fancy the one I got for my 11th birthday) and generally being free to make a mess and experiment. I have made many batches of jam under Ouma's watchful eye - she still makes marmalade and rusks whenever we're running low!

Over December I visited a berry farm in Swellendam (gorgeous place!) and bought a bunch of frozen berries... I didn't even think of making jam until I got back to Cape Town a week later - usually frozen berries get eaten in minutes but somehow these ones managed to escape!

I didn't have a recipe but stuck to the basics. Here goes:
 
Mixed Berry Jam Recipe

500g blueberries

500g raspberries

1kg youngberries

6 granny smith apples, grated

15ml lemon juice

2kg sugar

The method is quite simple. Place all the ingredients in a very large heavy bottomed pot over low heat. At the same time, place a saucer in the freezer for testing the jam to see if it's done. Once the sugar is dissolved in the berry juice, bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Stir constantly - the jam will bubble up to about double the original volume and could boil over if you're not careful. Once the colour of the jam has changed and it's looking like runny jam (15-20min) test a little on your chilled saucer - I made notes on testing jam with my strawberry jam recipe.

Bottle in sterilized, hot jars. I close the jars whilst still hot to ensure that they seal properly and have stored jam for over a year without a hitch (mostly, however, the jam only lasts a few weeks before it is devoured by friends and my hungry family)

Fabulous Family Outing

 Once a year we rally the troops and head out to Klondike  farm outside Ceres in the Western Cape to pick fresh cherries... We were introduced to this fabulous outing a few years ago by one of dad's friends who has celebrated his dad's birthday every year with cherries. As you can see the farm is beautiful and well worth the drive! We picked about 15kg as we always share the juicy red love with friends ans faily who are unable to join us on the day...


As far as a reasonable day out goes it's pretty good value: R15 entry fee per person and then we paid about R600 for cherries and juices for the drive home... 


We've dished out the gift cherries and still have a giant coolerbox-full to make preserves for deserts for the year to come... Someone suggested freezing them to eat on hot days as mini icies so i'm going to chuck 2kg into then freezer for that! 


But enough of the blogging - I've got cherries waiting to be tasted :-)

Sunday Ramblings

I finally got it together to start the strawberry beds on the walls (remember the Strawberry Plan?)  and I'm quite pleased with the results :-) Proud to say I managed to do it all myself - from cutting the gutters (disastrous!) to drilling the walls (a little more successfully!), etc.

This was inspired by our trip to Stellenbosch on Friday. The strawberry farms already have red berries by the thousand (granted they're growing in tunnels!). I've noticed they're getting a little less ridiculously priced at woolies (they're still darn expensive, even if someone else is paying) and there's more variety.

I owe my mom a MASSIVE favour (or ten - I'll blog about that one tomorrow) so I'm going to put up some strawberry gutters for her this week... I'm thinking of planting some more things than strawberries though and I'll have to put lots of them up as it's a very hot and exposed area (my thinking is that if I put up enough it'll cool it down a bit...). Hopefully I can turn it into a relaxing and productive space for mom (and Dad) to enjoy :-)

 

I've started off with just 3 tiers to test out the plan (plus, I didn't have washers for the screws I'm worried that the screws might pull through the plastic...) Seems like a good thing I'm planting them out as the seedling trays have stunted their growth - they were pretty root bound.

The white powder was my over-zealous gardener adding bone meal to the planting process... I'd asked him to mix a handful into the soil and this is how he understood it (I was fetching a cup of tea!)

The lettuces and beetroot are growing like crazy! The rain and warmer weather have done them the world of good (I thought they were duds as they struggled to get going!)

Close up of the lettuce. I think I can make a salad with all the outside leaves soon and leave the inside to keep growing

The onions are coming along nicely - the stems are strong and thick

Self-Sufficiency

A couple of months back I wandered into Exclusive Books (as I do very often!) and a book caught my eye... The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers by John Seymore. The catch phrase is something like for idealists and dreamers (I can't remember off the top of my head now...) I'm not sure where I fall between those two categories - some days I'm the ultimate idealist and others I just have these dreams that run away with me - but I can honestly say that John Seymore's books are nothing short of inspirational! Given that they were written many years ago (he gives instructions for the construction of cold houses as there were no fridges, etc.) there is much entertainment to be found between the covers. I not only purchased The complete guide to self sufficiency but The New Self-Sufficient Gardener too! I have read and re-read them hundreds of times already, drawing inspiration, motivation and skills from their beautifully illustrated pages... Both books cover a very wide knowledge base that has been put into simple words that bring the ideas and concepts to life. I have learned much about planting, looking after my vegetables and trees, culinary skills such as preserving my produce, etc.

The books have pride of place on my coffee table and proudly bear the stains of use as a manual in the kitchen and garden. John Seymore's experience is worth a thousand times what I paid for the books! He's unfortunately passed on but his teaching farm still exists in Ireland and his family is keeping his legacy alive. We could do with more wonderful people like this around today!

Strawberry plan

It's time to plant out the strawberries which have been carefully looked after in their seedling trays (all of the established plants had to be taken out of the garden beds as the chickens eat the leaves and scratch them clean out of the soil when they're looking for grubs and taking a sand bath!) There are still about 30 strawberry plants in pots and troughs that for some reason have decided it's time to start making fruit... I'm so sure this is way too early and as a result of the very warm winter weather we've had in Cape Town. Holding thumbs that it doesn't negatively affect the plants through their proper friut season!

I have been racking my brain for weeks now as to where and how to plant out the new plants... I can buy hanging and wall baskets from the wholesaler but at a great cost (you have to spend a minimum of R2000 which is one hell of a lot of strawberries that could be bought at Woolies at R40 per punnet!!!). I have some in troughs at the moment which work quite well and am trying to get my very able and generally willing dad to build a stand for them so they can be off the ground (that is, away from the chicken's beaks and claws!) and into a better sunlight position... But this only solves the problem of the strawberries already in their "final home" :-)

We had a guest to visit last weekend who came to see the chickens (I am very proud and tell everyone about them!), when he saw all of the strawberry plants in trays he suggested building an A-frame and attaching plastic gutters all down both sides to put the plants into as they don't need very deep beds and the narrowness of the guttering means that the berries will grow over the side and not lie on the soil... I love the idea!!! I unfortunately don't have enough space to use an A-frame but I've spent the weekend identifying potential walls that I can attach multiple gutters to. I've checked to see how much direct sun these walls receive as well as the visual impact of having gutters on said walls.

I have a great big wall that can have 4m long gutters and if I space the plants 20cm apart I can fit 18-20 plants in a level. This should deal with the 150 plants waiting to be planted out! I feel like this is a success already ;-) Tomorrow's task is to buy guttering from the hardware store , put ends on, drill holes in the bottom for drainage and attach them to the wall. Tuesday is reserved for planting out of all plants. Smiles all round! I can't wait for summer and yummy fruit and Jam and Daquiries and, and, and!!