Back In The Groove

Normality has returned. Well, until I go away again on Friday.

Cardbox is back under control. I am being paranoid at the moment - recent experience has led me to add in all the 7s with 2 Vs or 2 Ws...

Alpine strawberry picking has started. Just over 2 pounds last week that I converted into jam with about 10 minutes to spare before Allan arrived to whisk me off to Carlisle on the first leg of our journey down to Stone and the UK Masters. (More on that in a later post). Just under one and a half pounds this evening before the rain drove me back inside, leaving a couple of patches unharvested.

Weeded the herb bed yesterday and got all my lavender plants planted in pairs dividing it into equal sections, with herbs in between - still got two 'herb' gaps waiting for me to transplant some chives from LB4 and I haven't decided what else yet. I will also plant some mint in a pot and that will go on the end to hide the drain cover. And then I need to stop Jen walking all over it :(

This afternoon I worked through the drizzle weeding LB12 (again) and a bit of LB11. Even Paul noticed how much better it looks. I dug out Reg's daffodils and planted the hosta and iris from the Paxton plant sale and the second daphne from Edrom nursery in the gaps that created.

I really need to spray again as the bindweed is coming up all over the remainder of the LB extension, but rain is forecast in varying amounts for the foreseeable future.

Just For Henry

I tried it today - it tastes fine.
Another 3/4 pound picked today. I need some more recipe ideas...

Wild Strawberry Sorbet

I picked another pound of my wild strawberries yesterday and decided to have a go at making sorbet. I had a recipe in my Marguerite Patten cookery book.

A quick trip into Duns this morning as it said I needed gelatine, which I found at the Co-op. I also nipped into Youngmans and came out loaded with two Mason Cash pie dishes (30 oz and 60 oz) - getting ready for the gooseberry harvest, an egg poacher (one that you hang over the side of your saucepan) and some pastry cutters. I had been looking on the web for these items but had been totally unsuccessful finding one site that sold them all, and therefore the postage would make them far too expensive.

After lunch I started on the sorbet.

Stew the strawberries slowly in half a pint of water.
Press through a sieve - this took longer than anticipated so the puree was not very hot when I finished so I heated it up again...
Add 3 oz sugar and one teaspoon of gelatine to hot puree (see above) and stir until dissolved.
Transfer to container and place in freezer.

Stiffly beat two or three egg whites.
I discovered I was not very good at separating the yolks, so three eggs resulted in two egg whites and an omelette mix for tea tonight, but they were large eggs and all I had. Paul then informed me we have an egg separator gadget somewhere... Much beating of eggs took place, Paul and I taking turns as we were just using a hand whisk (hint: one of those electric whisk/blitzer gadgets might be useful). Eventually they formed quite a satisfying voluminous white frothy texture - not quite up to meringue standard but not bad.

When the puree mixture begins to stiffen (this took quite a long time and I may still have been premature) fold into the egg whites and return to the freezer.

Well, time will tell if it works, but it does look a very pretty pink colour and has cost virtually nothing.

Wild Strawberry Jam

So I was out dodging the drizzle - well, actually not dodging the drizzle this morning - picking my alpine strawberries. After having to eat the overripe ones I ended up with two pounds...

I searched the web unsuccessfully for a recipe and in the end decided to just treat them as 'normal' strawberries - equal quantities of sugar to fruit.

Wash/dry strawberries and place in jam pan with no extra water. Heat gently, stirring until they started to go mushy. Add the sugar and stir until all dissolved. Add juice of one lemon. Bring to the boil with no stirring. It reached the setting point after about five minutes. Take off the heat. Remove scum. Leave until begins to thicken in the pan. Stir to distribute fruit more evenly within the jam. Pot up.

It is an absolutely gorgeous colour and has given a really good yield. The pan scrapings tasted rather good too...

Fragaria vesca 'Semperflorens'

When I inherited the garden there were a few alpine strawberry plants in the high bank, long bank and growing in the bank at the side of the drive. They are good ground cover and the strawberries, albeit small, have so much flavour.

Over the last couple of years they have spread, taking over larger and larger areas. They are all along the bottom of the high bank now - easy to pick there. Another patch at the back of the buddleia in the long bank, and a couple of patches in LB2, top and bottom. The ones in the drive bank are now working their way into the trellis bed, having completely colonised the area by the sheds. I need to dig out some more footholds - not easy to pick there. There is even a large patch on the drive itself, having sent the tendrils out from LB2. There are a lot worse garden thugs...I will not easily forget the creeping buttercups that had a stranglehold when we first moved up here.

I started cropping them a couple of weeks ago, getting a good handful every day. I also pick/eat a few most times I walk past the high bank.

They have obviously enjoyed our recent weather of rain and hot, if not always sunny, days. I have just got in from picking them after a couple of missed days and have filled a punnet - over a pound in weight - and it looks as if I will get almost as many again in another day or two. I am hoping they will survive in the fridge until then so that I can get enough to try to make alpine strawberry jam.