Fruit Picking

Tuesday July 5th
I can't believe it's nearly two months since I last wrote a blog entry. I bumped into Kev the other day - at his wedding as a matter of fact, and he asked me where I'd been!
Peter wanted me to record the day we started to pick the redcurrants. It was Friday 25th June. We'd been away for two weeks, and the berries were dripping off the bushes. Fortunately not all of them were ripe. Peter spent two hours picking berries and cutting the grass, while I picked gooseberries, planted leeks and did some watering. The fruit cage is working well at keeping the birds out, although I think we could probably have allowed the birds have a few this year. Peter found a couple of bushes with berries on which weren't quite ripe - then I remembered - John had said something about white currants. They look like albino berries as you can see the seeds inside. But what on earth do you do with them?
I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time looking up recipes on the internet, for what to do with currants and cherries. I've made cherry compote which was great, cherry and yogurt ice-cream, just ok, and now we're trying cherry jam. Of course the cherries are best just eaten. I've made one batch of redcurrant jelly which didn't set very well so I'm going to have another go.
I planted two rows of celeriac plants before we went away and most are survivng. I wasn't sure if they'd be attacked by anything so I had hedged my bets and covered some with wire cloches. The peas however have not fared so well. Every time I remove the wire cloches all the peas disappear! People tell me it's the pigeons. Peter helped me to make a new netting cover to protect them earlier this week, so hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some fresh peas.
We missed the best of the strawberries while we were away - but they didn't go to waste - Kev ate them! His new wife, Lauren said she hadn't seen any of them! She reckons he ate them all in this van!!
We had picked a good crop of broad beans just before we went away and there were lots more when we returned. Other crops haven't done so well. I still haven't managed to get any carrots or parsnips to germinate. I even bought a new packet of parsnip seeds as they tell me you can't plant old parsnip seeds. Still nothing! All the fennel has disappeared - they seem to have been nibbled off at the surface.
This week I've picked some lovely new potatoes though and the first of the onions are ready. All the garlic has now gone over and is waiting to be lifted.
Now we have the mammoth job of doing something with all the fruit. I must say Peter has been great, picking all the berries and then cooking them to extract the juice. We also have a huge crop of cherries at home this year, so he's spent a lot of time pitting cherries. We also have loganberries this year and a good crop of raspberries. HELP!!