smallholderwannabe

This blog is mainly a rambling kind of diary of the transition from smallholderwannabe to smallholder.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Free food : )

I read a post on Facebook that says that there is likely to be another coupon in Thursday's Sun newspaper for Morrison's - for £5 worth of free fruit and veg with no strings attached.  I shall be popping round the corner to have a look on Thursday to look at a copy of the Sun to see if this is true. 

I do hope so! I've told my son so that he can get his copy as, with another little person in the house, anything that stretches their budget will be very welcome. And we've been out with them to the park this afternoon to run a bit of energy off the children and get a breath of fresh air for the grown ups.  They let my daughter-in-law out of hospital yesterday at 9pm(!) and she has had both the doctor and midwife visit this morning so she really wanted a gentle saunter in the park for a few minutes before sitting on a bench to watch the rest of us run after the older children and push swings etc.  It was lovely and sunny and probably did her a bit of good after four days in hospital.

I got some more blackberries and was given a bag of windfalls so I've made some more blackberry and apple jam.  I've also diced up the cucumbers I bought for 24p from Lidl and have them sitting in salted water before I pickle them tomorrow.  I've got marmalade to make and hopefully jam from the little not-quite-damson tree we have that a squirrel kindly planted for us.  I've also got some half price peaches and nectarines from Lidl and want to make some jam from them.  Guess what is going to be in the food hampers for my friends at Christmas? I've got a recipe for apple marmalade (with some grapefruit and lemon in as well) that I'd like to try.  My son has a small apple tree and I can't see that he will have the time or the inclination to do much with the apples this year. That is where my bag of windfalls came from and I'm hoping for more.  Mind you, I was sat for ages with the bag of windfalls, a bowl for the nice bits, a bowl for the reasonable peel and cores, and a very large bowl for the bits for the compost heap - and when I got to the bottom of the bag, I'd filled the compost bowl, got a decent pile in my "reasonable " bowl and a measly 16 ozs of prepared apple to go in my jam.  I cooked the peel and cores to mush and sieved it, measured it and added that to my jam too with an apprepriate amount of extra sugar.  I do like some apple in with my blackberries because it ensures a good set, the apple takes on the blackberry flavour and as well, it kind of spreads the pips out, if you know what I mean.  Small blackberries can mean that there are an awful lot of pips in the jam and I don't like too many pips.

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3 Comments:

  • At 11:42 PM, Blogger Donna said…

    Thanks, Jo. Those vouchers have certainly come in handy so far.

     
  • At 10:57 PM, Blogger Fran said…

    The blackberries round here are not ripe yet, so we are playing a waiting game! I have a huge bush at the top of the gangplank but they are only small so will go further afield for larger ones. You have been really busy xxx

     
  • At 2:28 AM, Blogger Jo said…

    Donna- apologies about the voucher - my informant got it wrong but apparently it is coming soon.

    Fran- I'm delighted with my blackberries. We harvested no gooseberries and one small bowl of blackcurrants and only enough raspberries for a couple of puddings with yoghurt so my blackberries are even more welcome. Yours will come soon : )

     

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