This Week

It's been a hotch potch type of week. So far I've made bread, feta cheese, strawberry jam and frozen kilos of cherries.

I'm not sure about the jam yet, it's too warm to tell if it's going to set properly. I was very impatient as I was using some strawberries I had frozen last month and I should have left them in a sieve to drain as they defrosted - but I didn't. Consequently there was a lot more liquid than I had anticipated. So I kept boiling and simmering and boiling and simmering - and then I got the Jamsetta out of the cupboard. But I still don't know how runny it will be, sigh.

The cheese is good though, even though I nearly put citric acid and not cheese salt in at the end. That was a close one.

We'd been given a box of cherries and after giving some to friends I decided to freeze the rest. Pulling stalks off cherries is mind-blowingly boring, but worth it. That's why I had to make the jam; I had to use the strawberries so that the cherries can go in the freezer.

In the garden I'm picking zucchinis (who isn't), scarlet runner beans, butter beans and the dark purple ones which turn green once cooked. I'm very disappointed about that, I like the look of purple beans mixed with my green and yellow ones. I have masses of tomatoes but they're all green. The lettuce and rocket are speeding ahead again; my radishes were a bit woody this time so I've put some more seed in to try again and because the seasons all seem confused we've even put some more potatoes in.

I had a fennel plant on its own in a pot and the greenery looked fantastic but when I took it out of the pot it had developed separate root looking things so that was not a success at all.

My Jerusalem (f)artichokes are growing and growing in front of the grape vine so I'm hoping that the grapes ripen before the plants in front get much bigger!

Socially, I've been busy too. Dinner at friends on Wednesday night, book group last night and tonight I'm going to visit a couple of "girlfriends". Our partners decided to have a men only group meet once a fortnight, about twelve months ago, and tonight is one of their meetings. Secretly I think they were all jealous of our book group but then it is good to encourage men who live in a fairly remote and rural setting to get together and talk. My friend calls it the "Beer and Bulls**t" night but that could be unfair - I know that they drink red wine too!

But it does mean that I don't have to cook tonight as M takes steak to barbecue at whoever's house he's at and I made sure that there would be leftovers that I could just reheat tonight before I go out, bliss.

But the dog is starving and wants to eat NOW so I'd better get to the kitchen.

JOC

ps we're getting 2 eggs a day now. I'm waiting to see if they will lay this weekend!