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

A Fruitful Bounty ......

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Roll up your sleeves and pop on your pinny I'm going to need all the help I can get!

 

Question?: What does one do with Excess Seasonal Fruits?

Answer: Give them to Princess..... of course!

Dear friends of mine recently purchased themselves a hobby farm full of wonderful mature fruit trees.

Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Apple, Pear and Plum. Red and White varieties of Grape, Pommegranet, Fig, Quince and did I mention Pear?

On my first visit I came home with a large bag of soour cherries which made a wonderful tangy sweet jam which is marvelous when mixed through natural youghurt or Icecream. It is also pretty good just spread on your toast for breakfast too I might add!

Anyway... this time I got a call to say that they had more fruit than they knew what to do with and would we like to pay a visit and collect ousrselves some 

 so...

Last week before all hell broke loose weather wise...

The Empress and I took a leisurely country drive out to "The Farm"

We spent a lovely afternoon picking bags of various types of Plums and Pears and ended up comming home with these...

And added to this lot lovely bag of peaches off our own tree in the garden

They are not quite ripe as yet so will be bottled later in the week as they start to ripen

(if they survive that long without being eaten fresh)

They were a mass of beautiful colours...

And tasted wonderful...

But far too much for us to consume fresh, despite giving away some to friends and neighbours so...

As we have had plenty of wet days recently... it gave us the perfect opportunity to preserve them by bottling/canning the fresh fruit in jars...

I turned some of the Plums into jam and some of the Pears made a wonderful pear paste.

 I'm about to have a  go at making some Spicy Plum sauce...

I'll let you know how it turns out... 

Fruits and jams preserved in recycled jars...

With some of the pears I added ground cinnamon  (I had run out of cinnamon sticks) slices of fresh ginger and a few drops of red food dye to give the syrup a pink colour. And we poached more of the pears in the leftover syrup and have frozen them... they tasted divine by the way...

Oh...

The vege patch if you were wondering (I haven't posted about it in a while) is  cropping marvelously... Here is just a small portion of this weeks bounty.

 Pontiac Potatoes, Purple and Green Climbing Beans, "Black Jack" and "Italian" Zicchini, Peppers and Tomatoes and Button Squash harvested so far... Dhaaarlings

There are more potatoes ready but I'm not game to dig them just yet given the moisture in the ground. A week of dry days might be nice to have before attempting to dig them out.

I'll keep my fingers crossed but I don't like my chances.....