Sunday 23 August 2020

In the doldrums good and proper . . .


You will have to forgive me the lack of posts, comments on other blogs etc - I seem to be properly "down in the dumps" at the moment.  All sorts of worries apart from the house selling and my brain is finding it hard to feel the least jot of positivity, although there ARE some positives out there, including with Keith's ongoing health problem, which I will just mention in passing rather than share with the world.

Anyway, here are three of my all time favourite books (Farmhouse Fare is the one I would take to a desert island with me!)  At harvest time I try and preserve as much of the fruit and veg grown here as possible, particularly the fruit, as we have so much of it.  In retrospect I am now relieved we weren't in a position to buy the house in Shropshire we fell in love with a while ago, as that had a serious orchard and you would have drowned in apples, pears and plums!


We picked 15 lbs of Damsons and left nearly as many on the tree which were damaged or out of reach.  The birds are delighted and really enjoying them, and I have had Blackbirds, Juvenile female Blackbirds, Black Caps, Robins and a positive ID of several Willow Warblers in the tree - feasting on fruit and insects on the fruit.  The WW's are a first for here.  They have probably been here all the time, but seeing them close up is a first for me. They seem to be the ones who have a particular call I have heard up and down our valley - not a song as such (though they obviously have a song) but a one note call.  Glad I have tracked them down.


This was the next stage of my Damson Cheese - which I've not made before.  It went through the jelly bag overnight and then got cooked up with sugar.  I knew it would set from about 10 minutes in, but you are meant to cook it slowly for an hour.  I gave it 35 minutes and then put it into sterilised jars. This will be wonderful with cold meats at Christmas.  The recipe said to use straight-sided jars.


I am about to go down and make some Apple and Damson Jelly, which has been in the jelly bag overnight.  That will make a few more jars than this.  I gave some Damsons and Windfall apples to my friend Nikki, who was delighted to get them.  She was pleased and I was relieved!  I've put the last couple of pounds of Damsons in the freezer, ready to make Damson Gin (when I have the Gin).  Three pounds from the freezer, left over from last year, have been put in the wine bucket to make Damson Wine.  I need to add the yeast to that this morning.

We had a "day out" this week when we went to view a property in Herefordshire which we'd been interested in, then came up as "Sold STC", and then I noticed it was back for sale again as it had obviously fallen through.  I had actually phoned the previous week and asked if it WAS going through and at that point it was - 2 days before exchange of contracts, it fell through.  The agent phoned me and said did we want to view, so nothing lost, we did.  Well, it had the view to end all views - just amazing - and the garden (with old orchard) and outbuildings was just what we were looking for but the house - emptied of furniture - looked very shabby and the rooms were a series of poorly-thought-out extensions around the original small cottage.  "Pokey" is the word I would use for a couple of the bedrooms but the deal-breaker was the very narrow staircase which you could barely get a chair up, let alone anything bigger.

Ah well, at least we had some Herefordshire air and scenery and know that should a miracle happen and our original buyer return, that one wouldn't do for us.

21 comments:

  1. You can't concentrate on everything at once.
    Glad you managed a day out.
    I am envious of your fruit crops. Apart from the weather grounding the insects at the wrong time we had a very hard frost in May, so you can imagine the results

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    1. Fruit is generally good here, though the fruit trees all get canker. We could do with another proper day out but the forecast isn't looking good.

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  2. I think most of us are a bit down in the dumps at present - small wonder really.

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    1. I agree. Thinking forward to Christmas in a Car Park (exchanaging gifts) is not a happy thought at the moment.

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  3. I am jealous of your damsons! I adore them. My husband bought me a grafted damson/greengage tree about four years ago, but the damson part of it died this summer and I have had to remove it in order to keep the greengage bit healthy. No greengages this year, alas, due to a late frost, but a good crop of large fruit on my plum tree next to it.

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    1. I hope that you can get a replacement Damson, and your Greengage survives.

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  4. Sorry to hear you are down at the moment - hope you find a solution to get your mojo back again.
    The wind blew down all remaining damsons, which are on the ground covered in wasps and a colander full of unripe pears - trying to decide what to do with them.

    At one time or another I've owned all those books but now just have a very tatty copy of the NT one - haven't looked at it for ages - ought to have another look at it

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    1. The mojo had a slight revival after a good walk yesterday but it is difficult to be positive at the moment - so many negatives. Just seen a house for sale in the right area with a fabulous (my dream) kitchen, but it's too near a busy main road. I know what kitchen I want in future though!

      The NT book has some excellent recipes in - dependable ones - and the history of some of the recipes is interesting too.

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  5. Sorry you are having such a hard time of late, sending you a hug in the hope that it will be a comfort to know someone is thinking of you. Take care.

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    1. Oh bless you for the hug - really appreciated MM. I will be happier when the PP for the driveway is sorted . . . A job for this afternoon.

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  6. I am really sorry to hear that you are in the doldrums. I do hope that the property that is right for you comes along just at the right time, when you have a buyer and are all set to go. It sounds like preserving your fruit and veg from the garden is keeping your mind busy right now, sounds like it is what you need.

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    1. It would be such a relief if we got a buyer but as the lime chap said last week (out to give us a quote for work), old farmhouses like ours (he has one too) attract dreamers . . . Sanity seems to be in the bottle of my jam pan right now!

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  7. Harvesting and preserving--and house hunting are all very hard work. You need a vacation, as do we all. What is damson "cheese"? Looks interesting.

    lizzy gone to the beach

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    1. Oh, a holiday . .. not even had more than a night away in so long, and proper holidays for 20 years now . . . The Damson "cheese" is a firmer set sort of jam, designed to keep and slice to go with cold meats.

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  8. There is a reason behind this delay - the house is still waiting for you. xxx

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  9. Life is such an interesting journey ha. Thinking of you.

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    1. Isn't it just? I do wonder if it is all planned out at our birth or a real matter of choice along the way?

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  10. Sorry to hear the blues have you down. Hard days sometimes with this limbo we are living in.

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    1. It's proving hard to shake off at the moment. Tomorrow is another day.

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  11. So sorry you are feeling so down but you do have a lot on your plate with trying to sell let alone this awful pandemic. Glad you had a day out in Herefordshire - a shame about the house but at least you can cross it off your list.

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