My hunter gatherer genes take over!

Thank you all for your comments on my previous post re pens.  I wouldn't like you to think that I sit here worrying all the time about the environment for as Dreaming in Stitches said there is no black and white in being green!  The post was supposed to be a slightly humorous tongue in cheek sort of post but on a subject which does concern me.  I am always glad to see other people's opinions though and am open to any suggestions.  However just because my nano efforts won't make a dot of difference doesn't mean I shouldn't try and if we all did maybe it would make a difference.  I feel better for having tried anyway!

Anyway another week another post and this past week has been busy for us as with nothing in the diary we decided to use the time to do some of the things we've been meaning to do but not getting round to.  For a start we decided not to do any food shopping but to use up what we already had.

I keep a stock of things in the freezer and cupboards in case we can't get to the shops when the snow is on the ground or we fall ill with colds or something but since it is unlikely that there will be snow any time soon I thought we should eat what we had and defrost the freezer in readiness for new stocks.  So we had some odd meals last week and sometimes we each had something different but the freezer and fridge were sorted out and defrosted and by Saturday the fridge was bare - well almost! 

Another job we wanted to get done was behind the fence where the wood threatens to take over our garden - you may remember I did it a couple of years ago and posted here about it.  Well of course it didn't stay cleared and although we did a bit last year we were back to where we started again now.  So donning my wellie boots, stout gloves and old waxed jacket (it was too hot but it did offer some sort of protection!) I clambered through the fence and made a start on the nettles and brambles along with the rosa rugosa which had spread from our side of the fence to form an almost impenetrable jungle taller than me by several feet!  Mr M joined me after a while and took on the job of raking the cuttings to the end of the fence where we formed a huge compost pile or wildlife refuge perhaps?  Our reward for all this labour was a harvest of blackberries which was then revealed and which for a little light relief I picked and we had in a crumble pudding (using the remains of a loaf of bread for the breadcrumbs) for dessert.  I now also have several pounds of them in the freezer which had been defrosted in readiness.  Whilst the path remains cleared I intend to pick more as they ripen and then we'll have plenty of blackberries if nothing else during the winter!

This morning I woke to see an apricot light on the rose hips along the boundary of the wood and resolved to pick some and make something with them.  I had, during my rest breaks from my machete wielding activities, been reading The Thrifty Forager by Alys Fowler and she had given a recipe for rose hip syrup which I had thought I'd try and then I noticed in the magazine Landscape in Smith's yesterday that there was an article on using rose hips and a recipe for jam which I liked the sound of but not wanting to buy the magazine I tried to remember what it said!

I gathered my rosehips while I may to quote roughly Robert Herrick's poem illustrated below by John William Waterhouse...

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

Must say I wouldn't have fancied gathering my rosehips or buds with bare feet though!

....and set to.  I decided to try the jam which was actually a cheese really as I sieved the pulp.  I did try to deseed each rosehip but I don't think I needed to bother since I would be sieving the fruit anyway and it was awfully fiddly.  I added a couple of crab apples for pectin and guessed at the quantities of water and sugar and produced a few pots of what I hoped would be a useful preserve.

I made a few scones to go with our afternoon cup of tea and tried the leftovers on my scone.  It hadn't set properly and although Delia tells me I could tip it all back in the pan with the juice of a lemon and boil it up again I think I might just keep it as it is and use it on my porridge instead of honey or as a syrup over ice cream or something as it is a bit bland and very sweet.  Of course I could also dilute it with hot water to make a drink for when we have a cold as it is supposed to be high in Vit C - those of us of a certain age will remember taking it by the spoonful when oranges were so had to obtain after the war.

We have a lot of self seeded nasturtiums in the garden and I have been adding a few flowers to my salads for weeks now and I also tried pickling some of the seeds which are supposed to be rather like capers.  Why I would bother since I don't think I have ever used capers in anything I don't know but my hunter gatherer genes suggested I should try it.  If it's there for the gathering I feel impelled to use it be it rosehips, blackberries or nasturtiums!

I have no idea whether they taste like capers nor whether I will actually use them but here they are.  Every time I see the name Sacla I am reminded of the little You tube video I showed you here  which in case you didn't see it I make no apology for adding again below!

So what with all this messing about the week sped by and although I hoped to be able to show you my finished bag I fear it is no further forward than it was before since I decided it was too thick to stitch with the pocket on the back and unpicked it and removed the pocket before sewing it back together; then the lining had me flummoxed as it seemed a bit thin and I feared the bag wouldn't have enough body so I unpicked that and added a layer of felt to it to stiffen it but now it's too thick and I fear the bag might end up in the back of the cupboard before long.

This coming week I have more social activities so there won't be so much time for hunting nor gathering but I did wonder whether to set myself a little challenge and try not to use the oven for a week having read that generating electricity is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide - not that the generators of electricity will produce less if I use less so again it's not black and white but a grey area.  I might try some one pot recipes on the gas hob this week or maybe even the electric slow cooker - it will be interesting to see how much difference it will make to the weekly readings we take.  But I shan't be worrying too much about it and as I don't think Mr M will take kindly to reading by candle-light and my cooking his dinners in a hay box I shan't be going too far with it all!

End of the Festivities - Twelfth Night

So it's all over now - the decorations have all been taken down - well truth to tell that didn't take long as I'd brought the door wreath in a few nights ago as it was tossing about in the wind and the tree was only a very small one - but tell me why having packed everything away and resealed the box and stored it in the eaves cupboard there is always one thing left out that you come upon too late?  The cards have been removed, re-read and looked at before going in a bag ready to go for recycling and it's back to normal tomorrow.  Apparently in Tudor times Christmas was celebrated for the whole 12 days with feasting and merry making - though guessing what life might have been like back then they probably needed a couple of weeks break and to fill up with food before going back to normal!

When we lived in France we were introduced to the custom of the Galette des Rois which is a cake served at Epiphany and containing a fevre or dried bean although nowadays it is more likely to be a little china figure like the above.  The cake is usually some kind of brioche type ring shaped cake although we ate all kinds of different sorts including a chocolate one and a puff pastry one.  In France you need to wait till after January to start your diet I can tell you!  Anyway getting back to the cake whoever gets the slice containing the fevre is crowned King for the day and wears a gold cardboard crown.  That is if he or she hasn't had to dash off to the dentist for emergency treatment after biting into the fevre!  Well they say you learn something new every day or as the French say you go to bed less stupid each night and I now discover - having watched the Tudor Monastery Farm Christmas that this custom was once  a tradition we followed in the UK only in our case it was a dried pea that was the token.  I dare say the custom died out with the Reformation though I haven't researched it.

We have had some stunning skies lately in between the heavy dark grey ones which have dumped yet more rain on us.  Here are a few photos:

 Sun going down the other afternoon giving us a beautiful peach coloured sky.

 Two more taken on the same afternoon - looking towards the east.

 This morning when I went out to feed the birds this amazing sunrise was in evidence - I know red sky in the morning means shepherd's warning - which did turn out to be true as it's rained all day since soon after I took this - but isn't it amazing?

 The sun did try though and you can perhaps see the light in this one - such are the moments we value here just now!  The grass was frosted and just for a brief moment all was well!  The birds are enjoying the coconut shell and nuts as well as the table which seems to be well used now word has got round.  A lesser spotted woodpecker is a regular visitor to the fat/seed filled shell I made and the blue tits get right inside it for their turn.

As I said it's been wet all day here so this afternoon I spent a happy time making some Seville marmalade - I have left it simmering on the hob and will add the sugar in an hour or so.  As I sliced the orange peel  I was taken back to the lovely week we spent some years ago in Seville where the oranges were falling from the trees and all over the pavements - what a good place for foraging that would be eh?  None of your nettle soup or wild garlic pesto but lovely oranges for marmalade!!!

Hope you are all keeping warm and dry (in UK) and warm  and not snowed in (in US) and cool in OZ!!!

Mixed bunch

Well this has been a rather strange week - an in-between sort of time when it's not still Christmas and not quite New Year either there has been nothing in the diary and the world is not yet back to normal. Here in the UK storms have led to flooding and loss of electricity along with damaging winds tumbling trees and causing damage to property along with transport chaos.  We personally haven't been affected apart from the Wanderer not being able to get to us for Christmas but my heart goes out to those whose homes are under water and who have not had any electricity for days on end.

One of my resolves for 2014 is to try bottling fruit - no electricity needed to keep fruit this way.  I remember the serried ranks of jewel bright jars in the pantry cupboard of my childhood and want to learn how to do it myself.  How come I never learned whilst my mother was busy doing it I wonder?!

 I also want to get to grips with sourdough baking  You may remember I told you about the starter a bloggy friend gave me here?  Well I did try and after a long time I managed to get the starter to froth as required.

 The bread I eventually produced though was not a success.  I ended up with this rather flat loaf - dough too moist I think - which we did slice and eat toasted but it reminded me of biscotti to look at and although it was edible it certainly wasn't what I had envisaged!  Must try harder.

 The weather has been a mixture of storms and some bright days, frost and mild grey days.  Yesterday the frost didn't melt from the garden all day and it was very cold but today dawned wet and dismal - this was the sky when  went out with the birds' food early this morning (they are enjoying the bird table I am happy to say!)

  Gradually the sky brightened...

... and the grey clouds headed east leaving us with a sunny bright morning.

After lunch I decided a walk to the Post Office through the woods would be good - it was lovely the sky above so blue even though underfoot it was muddy and the ground littered with branches, some across the path.

On my way back I picked this little posy of twigs which were in bud and some hazel catkins - hopeful eh?!

As we have spent such a quiet Christmas just the two of us I have had time to do plenty of reading and had a good selection of library books on hand for the holiday.  This one I can recommend - it turned out to be something quite different to the usual.  It is a story written from the point of view of a 5 year old which is in itself unusual but it works well.  If you want a story which will transport you to the sunny south of France, that contains no love stories or at least not the usual man meets woman sort, but a lovely sad/bittersweet tale of real love, friendship and imagination with a twist in the tail then this is for you!  If you read it let me know what you make of it  For more information see here.

I was going to wish you a "Happy New Year" but then I started to think about what is meant by this wish - happiness is after all ephemeral and I think rather like a butterfly which if you seek it will flit away but if you sit still and quiet might just land upon you only to fly away a few moments later.  So maybe what I wish you is many Santosha moments for nobody can have wall to wall happiness and it might not be a good thing if we could.  So I wish you peace, health and plenty of happy moments in 2014!

Hedgerow Harvest

Sometime ago I found a recipe in a library book for Hedgerow Jam and resolved that when the time was right I would try it.  On Saturday after lunch I duly set off in search of the required ingredients including sloes, which I have always felt I should be able to make use of but as I don't like gin and I have never known what else to use them for I have until now left on the bushes!  They are so beautiful and look like something Mediterranean I always think.

I decided to make this outing a Bus Pass, Boots and Backpack one and duly set off to catch the bus to the next village - a distance of just over 2 miles which takes about 5 minutes in the car.  I haven't yet found a straightforward route to walk it and walking along the A30 is not to be recommended as it is narrow, busy and in many places has no verge let alone a footpath.  The route the bus took was roundabout and we passed through several small villages and along single track lanes reaching West Coker in about 25 minutes.  I set off to climb to the Ridge and this is the view looking back.

Once on the Ridge this is the view looking across the other side and is one of my favourites - I want my ashes sprinkled here when I die!

.

Isn't it stunning?  And just look at the sky - always changing, always huge and beautiful.  I found masses of hawthorn berries and some rosehips on my climb up and then walking round this field I gathered some sloes and blackberries along with some elderberries.

Having packed my bounty into my rucksack I made my way back to the village - ever mindful that I mustn't be late or I would miss the bus and there wouldn't be another till Monday!  Look at that patch of bright sunlight over there whilst everywhere else is in shadow - interesting isn't it?

I loved the light as seen here - looks almost foreign doesn't it? 

Back in the village now and a short walk along the road to the bus stop and home.  I hadn't found any rowan berries nor any crab apples but I knew my neighbour has a crab apple tree in her garden and as luck would have it when I was passing her house she was just arriving back from somewhere and I was able to ask her if she used them all or if not whether I might have a few.  She said of course and I was able to pop back and pick up some of the windfalls after I'd deposited my backpack and its contents and had a cuppa.  So then I had everything except the rowanberries.  I decided to leave it all till Sunday and if it was fine - some hope as we were forecast heavy rain and strong winds - I knew where I could find some half an hour's walk from here. I knew where there were some much nearer but I wanted them from somewhere well away from the roads and traffic fumes.

The forecasters were wrong about the rain and winds early in the day and by lunchtime on Sunday I had all the ingredients I needed. Seems a shame to cook these doesn't it?!

I spent a happy rainy afternoon (yes the forecast was right by then) - it was very time consuming - picking over all the fruit and weighing it and boiling and then sieving it all and then adding sugar and testing for set and so on but I eventually finished up with these - the one at the front is for the neighbour who so kindly gave me the apples.  I don't think I shall be going into production any time soon though as it did take absolutely ages especially if you factor in the three hours on Saturday and an hour on Sunday spent doing my hunter gatherer bit.  I also seemed to have the kitchen worktops covered with pans and bowls and wooden spoons all liberally stained with purple, there were piles of washing up to do and cartons of leftover pulp to take out to the compost bin not to mention splatters of juice on my clothes.

The spread - I can't really call it jam as it doesn't have any pieces of fruit in it and I suppose it should strictly speaking be called a fruit butter - will go well with some of my home made bread and as I enjoy it I will be reminded of the happy time I spent out in the countryside picking the fruit. I made half the recipe as I wasn't sure how it would turn out and I have put the surplus fruit in the freezer but I might keep it for the birds in winter rather than making any more preserves delicious though it is!

Now some might say why on earth go to all that effort;  why not just buy a pot of jam?  I think we are hard wired to provide for ourselves and in doing so we meet some fundamental need going back through the centuries.  It might be time consuming and labour intensive but it is also extremely satisfying in a way that a jar of industrial (or even home made by somebody else)  jam can never be.  And when it's taken so much time in the fresh air and exercise in the walking to find the necessary ingredients as well as the physical labour of the cooking then I feel no sense of guilt at spreading a slice of bread with butter and topping it with some of the resulting spread for surely the exercise will counter the calories I eat!! 

Last days of summer

 Now that the school holidays are over we decided to take advantage of the good weather and to go to Weymouth for an outing - want to come with us?

The beach was almost empty - no Punch and Judy, no children building sandcastles, no lobster coloured sunbathers,no noise and bustle just acres of sand!

The donkeys were still there though looking a little bored as there were no queues of children wanting a ride I wonder if they continue to come till the end of September or just till it's obviously not worthwhile any more.  They are all really well looked after and beautifully groomed and even though I can't have a ride I love to see them.

We walked along to the far end of the beach and round to the harbour.

Over the bridge (you might just be able to see the bridge in the distance) and along the other side - the wind was chilly in spite of the sun and we were glad we were wearing our fleece jackets although some hardy souls were still going sleeveless and in shorts.

You wouldn't want to come dashing out of any of these houses and not looking where you were going!

Once round the Nothe headland we were out of the wind and it was warm in the sunshine.  We walked as far as we could along here and then had to turn off towards civilisation again walking down the narrow streets and back towards the busyness of the harbour area at Brewers Quay.

As always I found a feline friend - isn't he lovely?  I didn't stop long talking to him as I was afraid he might attempt to come to me through the railings and then be in on the pavement and danger of traffic so I said goodbye and continued walking.

Last time I was here Brewers Quay was empty and plans were for turning it into hotel, offices andapartments but for some reason that doesn't seem to be happening and it is now filled with little antique/junk/craft shops we had a poke round and then had lunch in our usual little cafe. 

Walked back round to the main beach and along towards Greenhill and the pebbly part before noticing that the sky looked a little threatening and thought perhaps it was time to return to the bus stop and get the bus back to the Park and Ride where we had left the car. (Reading though this post I am struck by how different the sky looks in all the photos - no longer plain unclouded blue but a more interesting sky with clouds forever changing.)

The guest houses were still decorated with lots of flowers...

I don't ever remember noticing quite so many flowers in window boxes everywhere as I have this year - remember me showing you some in London too?

I have ticked off several of my items on the to do list for this past week:

Patty pan squash cake

Have made bread a couple of times, made a cake using the pattypan squashes I got free from the farm shop where I did some of my weekly shop, been through my recipe file and made a couple of different dinners, had a couple of walks including one in search of blackberries when I didn't find those but came back with a bag of elderberries which I have turned into a couple of bottles of syrup for winter colds and coughs.

Thought what a wonderful plant elder is.  The blossoms are so delightful every one consisting of myriad tiny cream five petaled flowers nodding in the sunshine and which can be used in making elderflower syrup, champagne and go beautifully with gooseberries in summer then come the berries dark and shiny glistening in the autumn light and these too can be used for syrup, wine and when I get the other ingredients to go with them to make hedgerow jam too.  As I stripped the berries from the stalks I noticed how beautiful the remaining stalks were being deep purple/red and umbelliferous in shape an inspiration for embroidery I thought!  The tree is said to ward off evil influences although folklore also suggests that witches congregate beneath elders (must be fairly small people as they are rarely tall enough to congregate under!) and you can make peashooters from the twigs which are easily hollowed out too!  All that from one bush.

I also got my unfinished quilt out and had a look at it though not actually done any more sewing on it yet!  And did a few more rows on a crochet shawl I am making - not bad going eh?  Let's see what happens next week.

Sunday Scribblings

Sunday and another new month - half the year already gone it's frightening isn't it?  Thank you all for your lovely comments on my previous post - I am not sure you should encourage me though as I get the bit between my teeth and then there's no stopping me!  A  little posy picked from the garden this afternoon - I always wished for a picking garden and have planted seeds to this effect but so far the slugs seem to have polished off anything which raised its head above the parapet in my picking garden so this is what I found instead.

Thanks for your comments on my bees - I will of course be honoured to have them living so close to my back door - last year it was wasps outside the bedroom window!  We were told that they never re-use the same nest and that if they weren't causing any bother to let them be so of course that is what we did.  I had a word with them and asked them to kindly refrain from coming into the bedroom whose window they had chosen to nest in close proximity to (oops that doesn't sound like very good English "never use a preposition to end a sentence with" or something?!)  You may laugh at my having a chat with them but it did the trick and we had no wasps in the house at all last summer.  It's the same with ants - we used to have ants nesting under the stones on the patio area outside our French windows when we lived in Guildford and I spoke nicely to them and said that as long as they remained outside I would promise never to use ant powder nor to pour kettles of boiling water on them (though I was once too late to stop my mother in law doing just that and then had to apologise profusely to the remaining ants) or to use any other horrible way to get rid of them - we would live in harmony.  Which we did.  I even discovered that French ants understand English as I told them the same and not once did we ever have a problem with ants in the house and none here either I am glad to say.  Now you know why I am weird!

Hasn't the weather been strange - one advantage of the many sudden downpours is that although we haven't had any long walks recently I do get plenty of exercise running in and out to the washing line; plenty of step climbing as the line is on the higher level and lots of bending picking the washing from the basket on the ground and stretching to put it on the line only to have to dash out again a few minutes later to fetch it all in and then repeat the same procedure the moment the sun comes out again!  It is lovely and warm and sunny in between the rain so the washing does eventually get dry and I must be using up calories mustn't I!

I bought this little terracotta tile in Wells recently as I thought it very apt - I really must learn to "seize the day" although I understand that Latin scholars might not agree with that translation.  I took it to mean something like living in the moment and using the time I have rather than wasting it.  Whatever - I like it on the shed where I see it every time I go to the washing line.

Alongside the pebbled washing line area is our boundary fence which adjoins a wood - it is lovely to have nothing but woodland next door on that side although as you can imagine it is not easy to have an immaculate garden with all the brambles, stinging nettles and wild plants not to mention badgers! just the other side of the fence.  Good job I don't care for neat striped lawns and regimented plants type gardens isn't it?  Some of the foxgloves have grown from seeds I saved from plants in our French garden - they didn't grow the first couple of years we were here but when I planted an English foxglove plant, purchased from the market, nearby they realised what they were supposed to do and came up and flowered this spring.  I am hoping they will seed themselves and that we might eventually have many more.

In this little no-man's land alongside the fence I also planted some wild strawberries - a gift from a friend they came as a little book of matches but instead of having phosphorus or whatever it is that matches have they had seeds.  Like the foxgloves they didn't seem to fancy living just there but now they have taken to the area and have even produced fruit this year.

No supersize portions here though this was the number to be shared between two of us - good job the wanderer isn't here now isn't it?!!  I told my husband it was nouvelle cuisine though I hadn't drizzled couli artistically on the dish!!

Isn't lavender meant to be a Mediterranean plant which flourishes in dry hot summers?  Nobody told ours that and it's beautiful this year!

The patchwork group I used to belong to in France is hosting an exhibition this October and anyone can enter their work.  A couple of friends suggested I might like to enter something - the theme to be Legends, Myths and Stories.  My French friend had suggested I did something with an English twist to it and after much thought (and absolutely no action!) I decided to do something based on Glastonbury.  I did quite a bit of research into the various legends related to the town which was fascinating and wondered about doing something like a fabric book as it was to be story based.  I got as far as wondering how such a thing might be displayed - maybe a concertina type book would be best so I could do all the pages and join them afterwards and it could be displayed opened out, each page to be a small crazy patchwork with a picture (printed on fabric) of perhaps the Glastonbury Thorn, Joseph of Aramathea, King Arthur, the Chalice Well and so on as the centre piece.  Today is the last date for entering although the item doesn't have to be submitted till September BUT one must send a photo of the piece even if it is not finished.  Well of course mine is not even started so I think I will have to pass on that now!!  Actually, remembering how wonderful the items were in a previous exhibition which I went to with my friend when we lived in France, I wonder if it was a subconscious wish not to have my work seen alongside theirs which has had me delaying getting started?! The above photo shows how far I had got with it - not a single stitch made!  I truly do need to seize the day if by that is meant get on with it and stop messing about!