July - Harvest comes early

3 weeks on and nearly the end of July .The days are  noticeably shortening and harvest has begun. Whether it be fruit,vegetables or herbs we need to spend all our spare hours making use of all this produce for future months. Even trees are being harvested ,yes trees have a life span too and we happily now have a good store of dry logs for the winter.

So often have I thought to make mint sauce as we have so much mint in the garden, but never seem to get round to it. Lockdown as given me the time to do such things. I am on the ball making mint sauce enough for two households ,my Dads and ours and I guess a few to give away too . Mustard jars with the yellow plastic tops are the best to use as the vinegar can't rust the lids and it is just a nice size to keep in the fridge. Beggars cant be choosers so I have to use a wide array of jars.

My tomatoes are doing well and getting ready nicely, whereas my Dads havent started to turn red yet. His cucumbers are ready for eating and mine are like well, let's not mention them.  So it is nice to swap. We are having a race to see who can get the first runner beans. Mine stand about the height of me now but no sign of a flower as yet.  The peas have been pulled, blanched and in the freezer and we have started on the broad beans. My dad and I sit at the table shelling them and talk of happier days when it would be a proper family event . We had rows of them in the field. My Dad and uncles would bring them in sackfuls and we all had our place around the table chatting away as we did them. My Mother would be in the back kitchen with the cooker on full blast and steam pouring out of the door blanching them. I cant write about it anymore as it makes me sad as those lovely family members are not with us anymore. It must be so hard for my Dad too, but he doesn't complain. But all of you who knew them ..Fred,Appy and my Mum , will know what I mean.

 Then there was fresh rosemary and garlic to stab into the cheese we started supper with this evening .

The waistlines never get less as I spend time baking , tonight it was plum pies .This one reminded me of Bowie ... such a vivid imagination people used to say to my Mother and I guess something never change.  It was just the plums had boiled out .

And I reckon the 4th photo down deserves someone to appreciate its art and pay me millions of dollars for this piece... might call it the end of the coffee cake .... or the scrapings of the bowl ...well it seemed more digestible to me than an image of an unmade bed

First Yorkshire strawberry

First strawberry of the season. 

Can't believe they have started to ripen so quickly .It was only the other week that the flowers were on them and I was weeding the strawberry patch at my Dads .My strawberry plants have formed fruit on them but probably need more water as we have hardly had any rain. My Dad tends his plants very well and tonight we shared the first strawberry. He sits in the shade of a tree in his deckchair and has the hose pipe in his hand watering his garden. It is good that the weather has been nice and he can sit out and enjoy the sunshine but some days when he has been in the greenhouse it gets rather too hot when the thermometer reaches 120 degrees

I hope there are some more that will ripen before too long as our three little "blackbirds"[grandchildren] arrived to stay with their Daddy the other day and are here for 2 weeks.  Martha is a really fruit lover and will probably pick a handful for "later' but she always like to share with her great granddad . The first week that there are here on the farm we are not seeing them  other than over the fence. We will be careful as with my Dad so old now we take all the measures we can to keep him safe in this Covid time. He loved to see them and they like to come to see him too . Now they are older they say we have just come to see if you are alright . They know where the goodie tin is too  and are partial to his store of toffees. Saying that they are very good as if it is near meal times they take one for after dinner.  Whether they eat it in the stackyard on their way home is another matter .

Tomorrow they will be having some new potatoes as Rubi helped her Daddy to plant them and they always taste better straight out of the garden  with a bit of butter on them