Obsessed by the Weather!

Us Brits are often said to be obsessed by the weather and living on a smallholding on Bodmin Moor I can understand why! The weather is so variable here, warm and sunny in the morning and foul and wet by the afternoon the next day clagged in until lunchtime and then wonderful sunsets in the evening. Since my last posting the weather has tended towards the wet with just a few fine days.


This has impacted on our outdoor crops rather badly - tomatoes, squash and strawberries have rotted before ripening. Our greenhouse and poly-tunnel crops are also suffering from the continuous damp and lack of sunshine but the peppers in the conservatory are beginning to ripen. Cucumbers continue to do well and I have made several jars of 'bread and butter pickle' which is has used up most this surplus plus a few pounds of onions - all we have to do now is wait for about six weeks for it to mature and then hopefully it will go well with a large chunk of bread and cheese. The local supermarket had a glut of beautiful peaches which they reduced to less than half price and these have been preserved in a sweet, spicy vinegar and should be delicious with cold meat especially ham by Christmas.


We have four chickens and they have been very productive and produce an egg a day each. The eggs are great with very yellow yolks and whites that stay together when poached rather than spreading into each other as soon as they are broken into the pan! As they are still relatively new to laying we get quite a few double yolkers and the occasional soft shelled egg - these are usually given to our yellow Labrador, Saffy who never hesitates to eat them. I have been experimenting with different flavoured vinegars to pickle the eggs in and will let you know the results in a few weeks.


I have always enjoyed cooking and have spent many happy wet evenings finding old recipes for preserving food. I had hoped for a good glut of home grown produce by now but this has not happened so far - but I am prepared for when Steve brings in vast quantities of fruit and veg!