(1050) Coming up to elevenses. (1119)
The Garden of Isilme
… and her Beloved, Reader Bob
Life in the garden has been crazy. A couple of weeks ago, while the weather was still reasonably good, I went out to survey the harvest. We had recently experienced a bit of a gale, so all the apples picked themselves and strayed all over the garden. Mainly under the tree in, and between, the raised beds.
They will most likely go to making cider vinegar, although we’ve been having apple crumble, baked apple and apple sponge desserts just lately. And I’m preparing to make some curried parsnip and apple soup (very yummy).
A lot of our eating apples went to various local events to use for apple bobbing, and for toffee apples. I would have a go at making toffee apples but I’m not sure my teeth could handle it. I don’t want to pull out all my fillings. Besides, I’m trying to cut down on sugar.
Meanwhile, the flowers are still flourishing. The nasturtiums either side of our steps have had a sudden new lease of life and are trailing like mad. They didn’t do that in the summer; they were weedy little things. And the wallflower next to the beans has flowered again.
We have tyres on the old patio out the back. My Beloved drilled holes round them into which to stick bamboo poles and filled the tyres with soil. So each tyre is its own little wigwam for the beans. Well, the wallflower decided it liked this (it turned up out of nowhere) and has rooted itself in a crack in the paving and we thought it was rather cheeky, so we left it there. It’s enjoying its life by all accounts!
I went to investigate one of the tomato plants that had draped over the raised bed and was working its way across the lawn. I guess we forgot to give it a stake (we clearly thought it was a bush tomato when we put it in!) Anyway, I found a lot of tomatoes on it. Green ones. But we know we can do things with those (Toodles gave me ideas last year I think it was).
Soon, there’ll be nothing left in the garden except twigs and decaying leaves. Except for the holly tree – it has berries, but I have to keep that a secret because the local ladies have wreath-making workshops and are always on the lookout for trees to denude.
I must say that I look forward to these bulletins for ideas but mostly for inspiration.
I’m happy to hear that, Andy!
I have to confess that the garden is mainly looked after by my Beloved. I’m just the one who says, “Dig this up,” or “Plant that there”. And I gather the harvest and take the photos. He does a grand job, and calls himself an ‘accidental gardener’ because he claims he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Unless it goes well. In that case, well, it was done on purpose of course!
Every good workman needs a good foreman (person?).
I envy your apple crop: ours was lamentable. We shall be eating our own leeks this evening. My beloved brought in our last red pepper yesterday. It’s half green but ripening noticeably in the kitchen already.
We still have a large bowl of the last of our toms. I imagine the greenest will make chutney if time allows. Today at lunch I had some of our Damson chutney. The ’21 vintage.
We have some of our tatties left – in the larder, I mean, not in the soil. We had rhubarb crumble last night, with our own rhubarb from the freezer. We have already finished this season’s morello cherry water ice. The crop was tiny because a sodding pest destroyed so many.
We grow a “pink currant”: we’d ordered a redcurrant bush but the blasted thing turns out to be a pink ‘un. Tasteless, almost – it imparts a vague fruity flavour but nothing distinct. Should we rip it out and try again? We are getting old: would we see a new bush in fruit?
Anyway, when the nursery gets round to delivering them we should have a bunch of new raspberry canes to plant. If we last a couple of years we should be enjoying our own rasps again. Pests permitting.