A Berry Merry Christmas!....

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Princess has just returned from a little trip to the awfully unruly and overgrown berry patch!

You may recall that last year I posted about my newly planted  

Thornless Blackberry Hybrid .

and Raspberry canes...

Well this is what they look like now...

Rather neglected.... but it is quite amazing the number of little treasures one can find if one looks closely....

Berries...

Berries...

And More Berries....

And these are just some of the fruits of my labour....

Banana Passion Fruit, Raspberries and a basket of Blackberries...

Already... The bounty of goodness has enabled the Empress to bake 2 Blackberry Pies 
and
 2 Raspberry and Custard Flans...


 Sadly, the drawback is that she managed to give them away before Princess got a sample...


I'm hoping to at least get a taste of these with some ice-cream and double cream with dinner tonight... That is.... before they get ferreted into the freezer by the Empress as soon as my back is turned!


Too Late!
As soon a I took these photos and came down stairs to prepare this post... I heard the empress cackling up stairs...


sure enough... the fruit is now frozen!


At least there's plenty more where they came from... Darlings...

What's in Princess' Patch?.... Autumn Harvest Edition...

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Summer... albeit an oddly warm, damp, humid and overcast one this year... has moved on...  and as the coolness of Autumn is well and truly upon us, I thought it time for an update on what's happening in Princesses Patch...

The raspberry canes that I planted early in Spring last year have been the real surprise!

The label stated that they would not fruit until their second year of growth... Yet... they have continued to produce fruit right through the summer giving the Empress and I... enough to have a weekly sampling to add to our icecream or youghurt for summer desserts...

The Zucchini harvest has ended now but the last ones that were about 3lb in weight I turned into a relish...

The Zucchini, Apples, Onions, a little Lemon zest, a healthy handfull of dried sultanas, a sprinkling of Allspice, ground Cloves, ground White Pepper, Malt Vinegar, Brown Sugar and some Salt all cooked up in a pot eventually turned into  this....

Jars full of Zucchini Relish... 

Other things that have harvested well in the garden this year are the Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Climbing beans, both purple and green beans.

None of which we have had to purchase from the shops all summer...

But sadly have come to an end now...

The lemons are just coming into their own... while these are  last of the cherry tomatoes

The last of the Cucumbers and one sad little Zucchini

Now the Pumpkin/Butternut Squash are starting to ripen...
Looking at the quantity of ripening fruit we will not need to purchase any Pumpkin for winter...

There has been a large outbreak of "Powdery Mildew" which effects the leaves of the pumpkin vines but fortunately has not effected the devlopment of the fruit.

This has been due to the unseasonable heavy rains, levels of high humidity and overcast days during summer this year...

My brother has grown "Queensland Blue" and "Kent" varieties of Pumpkins this year (not pictured here) so we will be able to do a bit of trading...

The potatoes that I have not harvested yet are still in the ground underneath where the pumpkins hare currently growing

I'll be waiting for the leaves from the pumpkins to die off before I dig up the potato patch.

We have also had a reasonable crop of apples from the one established tree in the gaden. My friends with the orchard have also kept us in a supply of fresh apples and enough to preserve and freeze.

I have large quantities of continental/flat and curly parsley thriving througout the garden.

 I'm needing to get out and do some maintenence and preparation for the winter vegetables now.

I'll rip out the old tomato vines and  zucchini plants.
I have more Climbing beans planted that should continue on from the old struggling plants, they are in a fairly sheltered and sunny spot... so should produce through to the coldest part of winter...

I'll decide what to plant once I have the beds ready...
So...
Pop back in for an update at some stage over the next week or two...

It may be some time before I get the chance to post again as my younger brother suffered a heart attack Thursday. He was very lucky in that he has survived well and recieved excellent and rapid tretment, undergoing double shunt insertions to his coraonary artery which was 90% occluded. His prognisis is very good but until he is back on his feet I will be busy helping to run his small mixed business in his absence until he recouperates fully...

I will keep you posted when I can...

Love to you all... Princess XXX