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..............