Home grown produce

Today I have mostly been feeling a bit delicate. Well, just this morning really and most definately due to tiredness because of not having a good nights sleep in the past two weeks and nothing at all to do with the home brew that was being consumed last night.

Yes, it is annual blackcurrant harvesting time and I've been busy making jam; we've got two blackcurrant bushes and we get loads of fruit every year. Anyway, we've got relatives here at the mo and last night we had a barbie with them. The meal included home-shot pigeon and home-grown mangetout so I thought I'd add a dessert of blackcurrant sorbet. I also decided it might be nice to try the blackcurrant liqueur that I'd brewed with some of last year's currants, it's popular over here to pour spirits on to sorbets, so we did. Then I realised we should try it as a Kir (drink made with cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) and white wine). We also had some fizz on the table, so naturally we had to try Kir Royales too (cassis and fizz). Then it was decided that we should also try it neat (to check its potential as a digestif, of course). I only had one bottle of the stuff - one year to brew it, one night to drink it... This year I will be brewing two bottles. If you want to try it, may I suggest booking a holiday with us end June, beg July 2010?

The mangetout previously mentioned has done very well this year and Isabella has enjoyed picking it, although she prefers it when they get left a while and goes to peas, she pods them and eats them straight away - saves me having to cook them! The peppers are coming along well so far and so are the carrots and onions, have pulled up half of the garlic as it started to go over, somthing to do with rot, can't remember the technical term, but we thought better small bulbs than no bulbs. (Not my fault on this occasion I don't think, but I'm not going to name and shame here) I think some of the potatoes might be ready, so might start digging them up as and when we need some. Not many raspberries this year, hoping the plums will do ok, they are starting to grow, but some have started dropping already before they are fully ripe. That's enough of this section, starting to turn into a bit of a snoozefest....