Saturday 23 June 2012


The deed is done; yesterday I managed to enter the garage and tackle the pickle/jam problem without getting distracted by vodka - result!


This picture shows what I retrieved from the garage shelf.  In some ways not quite as bad as I had thought, but I have to admit I was a little optimistic in my last blog that the oldest jars were from 2009, I actually found 4 dated 2008!  I decided that I would keep 6 jars only and commenced my cull.  It was an interesting experience opening the assorted jams and pickles and scooping the contents into a plastic bag for disposal.  Some were definitely not for human consumption, either mould had formed on the top (poor jar sterilization I suspect) or the contents had kind of crystallized (no idea why that happened).  And interestingly, deterioration was not age related, in fact, the earlier jars seemed fine.  During the process, Grumpy appeared on the scene declaring his love for all my fruity jams and swearing blind he was about to start eating them.  I told him that he should have thought of that sooner, in fact 4 years ago.  A tense silence ensued between us, him glaring and me defiantly scooping out the jars.  A truce was called and I allowed a couple of extra jars to escape my ministrations and return to the garage shelf.  Voilá.


Last week we went to The Good Food/Gardeners World Shows at the NEC in Birmingham.  Had a nice trip up there from our home in Devon, calling in to see daughter and granddaughter on the way.  We stayed for a couple of nights at a Premier Inn right next to the NEC - very handy.  Now, I have to confess that I have a little bit of a 'problem' in that I am a sucker for buying kitchen gadgets, some of which could be classed as er..... unnecessary at best or just totally useless.  Lakeland is my favourite shop and I can happily sit at the computer for hours watching their videos of various cooking accessories.  Yes, some items are really useful but others, perhaps not quite so.  I remember the first time I used my battery operated sauce stirring thingy; I plonked it in a pan full of simmering parsley sauce so it could stir whilst I got on with other things.  Possibly my sauce was a little runny but this machine started gyrating around the pan like a swirling dervish and sauce flew everywhere!  So mesmerised by this was I, it took me a minute or so to think of switching it off, by then both the cooker and me were splattered in parsley sauce.

Anyhow, I digress.  At the Good Food Show there was a crowd of people around the Vitamix stand watching the man demonstrate the machine.  Too much for me to resist, so I join them and was duly wowed by the ice cream he produced from cabbage, carrot, strawberries and ice.  Next the soup; raw veg to hot soup in 6 minutes.  You can guess, I'm falling in love - with the machine not the young man demonstrating.  My fellow onlookers are captivated too but when he says the fateful words 'Of course, this machine is not cheap', the crowd suddenly thins (lightweights) and it is more or less me, him and a couple of others left.  Anyhow, by this time my little mind is ticking away - I can suddenly envisage using up the copious amounts of fruit and veg that will soon be arriving home from Grumpy's efforts on the allotments.  No more jams or pickles, just smoothies, ice creams and hot nutritional soups.  IT'S A MUST HAVE.

To be continued..............

Thursday 7 June 2012

Hi, I'm Dad, better known as Grumpy, a name given to me by my granddaughter.  I have to agree the name is most apt and I'm quite proud of it.  As the old thing says, we were coerced into this blogging thingy by the daughter, bless her!  Apparently I will blog words of wisdom on gardening and the old thing on cooking.  The old thing is a pretty mean cook; she manages to keep plenty of excess pounds on my waistline, hence my need to garden to try to contain some of them!  So there you have it, I potter in the garden and chat a lot at the allotments, I ain't no expert.  About the only thing Alan Titchmarch and I have in common is that we both kept an evil eye on Charlie Dimmock!   I also enjoy cooking, I'm a dab hand with the frying pan and wok.

Neither garden nor allotment will see much of me today, it's raining heavily.  Good for the allotment, especially the spuds.  Every year I say I will cut down on the amount I grow but I still managed to sow 21 rows.  They range from first earlies through to maincrop.  The red Duke of York are not far off being ready, I'll have to have a scratch around next week.  Everything else is looking OK at the moment and this rain is saving me walking miles with watering cans.  In the poly-tunnel all is well, some tomatoes have set, soon be picking.  The worm juice is proving invaluable as a feed yet again, it goes on everything.

Going to the Good Food Show and Gardeners World Show at the NEC next week.  Last time we went we turned right as we entered and ended up tasting all kinds of disgusting flavoured vodkas, rather splendid malts and most intoxicants in between.  All this before nine-thirtyish in the morning, by the time we got to the Gardening Show, old thing was Delia and I was Monty!  This year the plan is to turn left, but hey, I had a plan to not grow so many spuds and what did I do!

In my next blog (if there is one after this effort) I'll try and go through some of the varieties of veg that are growing and how they are fairing.  The old thing may slot in a couple of photos, far too technical for me.  It's still raining so time to cast a mean eye on the greenhouse and then sample the old things raspberry vodka, I think that's the order to do it!!

Tuesday 5 June 2012

As Faith's mother I wish to thank her for roping us in (sorry, including us) in her Wormery Store Blog.  I just love her write-up about happy childhood memories picking soft fruit, I seem to remember a truculent little girl moaning like hell at having to work for her pocket money!

Ever onwards.  Today I decided I would attempt my first ever blog (well it is heaving down with rain outside) so I seriously deliberated what to say.  My primary job at the moment is to take stock of what jams, pickles, dehydrated fruit and veg etc are currently harbouring on a shelf in the garage and decide what is usable, what should have been thrown out years ago (I kid you not, some of the jam labels are dated 2009) and what to eat tout de suite!  I like to have a good cull at least once a year - ok, truth be told at least every 5 years!  Mind you, let's face it Marie Curie wasn't put off by a bit of mould so why should I be.

Anyhow, off I trundle into the garage and have a quick perusal of said shelf.  Daunting!  I casually cast my eyes around the garage (think more wall to wall shelving than a place a car could be parked) and there at the back of a top shelf, just behind the yoghurt maker (must use that one day) and the old deep fat fryer that gave up the ghost years ago, I espied two large Le Parfait kilner jars.  The old memory banks started rattling and I think to myself this could be interesting.  Step ladder in place,I retrieve two full 2 litre jars of - YES - Raspberry Vodka.  I made this last September and should have strained and bottled it in time for Xmas.

So, the jams and pickles are still happily festering on the shelf, but hey, the vodka has been duly strained, bottled and er........ sampled.  Very nice, even if I do say so myself!  Oh, the recipe:-  400g of home grown raspberries, 300g of sugar and a bottle of vodka; throw it all in a large kilner jar, shake every week or so until all the sugar has dissolved, after 3 months it is ready for straining, bottling and more importantly, drinking.  Dont waste money on expensive vodka, supermarket value brand just as tasty.  For human consumption only, dont recommend this for the worms!

Off for a little lie down now.