Sunday 12 August 2012

Cheesy but true good life post

It was a beautiful day here in the mountains on Friday. We had the luxury of knowing at least a day of good weather was on the way. On a day like that I am determined to spend the day in the garden. And that's exactly what we did. 
Lunch was homegrown lettuce, french beans, and broad beans, a friends rocket and eggs and the tuna was from Aldi. (Lidl's tuna is much better)
The dressing was garlic, Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and an olive oil that we brought home from Spain.
Washed down with our very first attempt at homemade elderflower champagne. 


I wasn't sure what to expect from this drink. We only made it about 3 weeks ago. About 7 bottles. One of the bottles exploded in the shed even though we were letting the gas out every other day. Another bottle didn't seem to be fermenting as much as the others, which is the one we stuck in the fridge and had while sitting in the sun. It is sweet and floral and still fizzy, and absolutely lovely.  


One of the jobs for the afternoon was picking the soft fruit. Redcurrants like dangley earrings will be used for their pectin content in the strawberry jam fest that i am planning for the wetter weather that is forcast for next week.


Great blackcurrants this year, i'm thinking these might be infused in vodka, as the raspberry vodka that i normally make is under question, because the raspberries look half the height they usually are and i'm not sure that they will crop well this year.


The blueberry bush is a great plant. Laden with fruit at the moment, our four bushes enjoy our acid soil and will be picked  several times in the next month, as you can see they don't all ripen at once. Once they have offered up all their fruit, then the foliage goes flaming red and are wonderful to look at. These berries rarely make it into the house. If they do, they are in such small numbers they are snaffled out of the little bowl in the fridge before i can ever do anything with them.
This year I am determined to make a blueberry pie or at very least a batch of muffins.

9 comments:

  1. Oh wow! That so nice! we were just having our dinner and talking about a blog post of a meal made of the things we've grown, potatoes, spring onions rocket and an egg! xx

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    1. Thanks Linda, That sounds like you have the makings of a very nice fritata/spanish tortilla there. It's one of my favourite 100%ers.
      A 100%er is a meal that is made entirely from home grown produce.

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  2. Eldeflower Champagne!? Oh My! You are fortunate that I live so far away because I would be showing up at your table for a meal every day! Yum!
    Connie*

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  3. Elderflower champagne is the best! One of the Liz's has a soiree every year and that's all we're allowed to drink! x

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  4. I used to eat redcurrants every summer back in Poland, just picking up at my parent garden.. ohh here in US it's a bit harder to find them ;(
    xxo

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  5. I love your new little bees portrait!!!
    Connie*

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  6. Arrived via your comment on Froog's blog and just falling in love with your beautiful photography! Will be back for a better look around later x

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  7. Your fruit looks wonderful - our's hasn't done very well this year, very few plums after a bumper crop last year. We did manage to make elderflower cordial which just tastes of summer.

    Tawney

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