A Granny's Diary - Tuesday, 29th September 2020 - Its Michaelmas and the Harvest should be in !!

 Dear Friends,

Apparently, the harvest should all be in by now, according to traditiom and, thankfully, mine almost is done. Just a few more courgette plants to remove this afternoon, from which over the last few days I've picked almost 20 small fruits.  This is splendid.  We've had courgette, marrows, squash and simply masses of green beans - Runners, French Beans, White Climbing Beans and dwarf Pink Borlotti.  This morning I processed 7 large bags of beans for the freezer.  I must make one more green tomato chutney and cook up a few mixes of courgette, onions and tomatoes to use for winter meals and, most importantly, must create more parsley butter for the flavouring of stews and all manner of good things to eat.

I have to say, cooking up a storm of veggies after a day in the garden is a bit much so mostly, its all done little by little, as and when I can.  And thankfully, I'm getting to the end of my present veggie-glut.  We have both lost interest in cooking daily meals over the last few weeks of constant food harvests, so this week, as its the last week of frantic chopping, slicing, boiling, bottling, processing and freezing, we are treating ourselves to a few ready-made meals from Sainsbury's, which is a great help.

Our regular shopping slot with Sainsbury's is great but now shopping does not come in handy orange bags, well I expect you've noticed this too !  So now everything is lumped into 1 or two blue crates which leaves both of us scrabbling to uplift our items individually into our own extra large shoppers.  Well, it must save Mr. Sainsbury quite a good few pennies plus saving all those unwanted or unused bags getting into the wrong bins and causing problems.

All waste not needed even more now; thus we're doing our bit to save our world.

Processing my green beans took about 90 minutes of concentrated effort  plus strainers, bowls, mopping-up cloths, labelled storage bags, plenty of ice cubes for cooling and blanching plus a panful of boiling water and a kettle of boiling water to replenish said saucepan.

Bother, now can't get to my garden today so must crack on with that chutney mix and with salting my veg tonight; also making a pickling mix for our baby tomatoes and cook courgettes and onions to keep the freezer well fed.  Now tomorrow, must plant my winter lettuces and pick parsley for my parsley butter.  Its all go here !!!

Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael and All Angels and one of the 4 Quarter Days of the year.  The day on which rents and debts had to be paid off, for electing new magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms.  Also for hiring new servants.  It epitomises the beginning of the autumn season, of darker nights and colder days.  The harvest was ripe for gathering in and had to be in by today.  Mine now will have to be finished tmrw.  And for dinner tonight, feast on goose to protect your family against financial hardship for the next year...now that would be good indeed, hey !  I love eating goose.  Goose Fairs, geese given as presents in lieu of unpaid debts, geese driven to markets and sold, fun and revellry for local people.

Of course, Harvest Festival is now our celebration time, to give thanks for the harvest gathered in on farms all over the country and displayed in Church Services.  Gifts given to Parishoners.  Harvest is a time to give and to receive.  A celebration of all that has been grown and harvested and a time of great thankfulness for another year of food security.

Of course, in this dreadfdul Covid-19 year, we must be truly thankful for all we receive and for the hard work of farmers everywhere.  My little patch of veggies does not aim to feed us for the next year, it couldn't possibly do so, but I am thankful that my allotment area was mine for the year to grow my choice of veg, fruit, flowers and herbs and, having just paid my rent for the forthcoming year, for my two allotments, I am seriously excited about what we're going to grow next year, let alone what I already have growing on my work table and  in my greenhouse.

Good Glorious Food indeed and absolutely right.  Well, my green tomato chutney won't get started if I keep chatting like this, so cheerio and see you next time, I hope !!

Veggie-Love Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - Autumn Veg-love - Still September 2020 for a few more days - And my harvest needs to be brought in !!

 Hello there,

On this Wedmesday, 23rd September, and a busy morning and I'm still waiting to get to my garden.  Not going is not an option.  I may have to catch a bus if the Grandpa who shares my life doesn't want to drive me there.  Which, of course, is his to decide but, my garden needs attention and plants and canes will not uproot themselves, the earth will not clear itself of faded debris and my new seedlings awaiting transplantion to their permanent growing homes will just remain in situ until I've belatedly caught up with everything else.

I was so late with my veggie planting this year, because of a late decision to grow veg. this dreadful year of Covid-19 horror, so my harvest is late but, if I don't  cut my losses and gather in what is there now, well I shall be late again for next year.

Late beginnings and even later transplants to garden soil means plants have less time to grow and develop their full growth potential and flowerings, like my dahlias this year, who simply have only now begun to do well in my gardene.  An alternative view of this skewed progress is that late developing plants appear at a fallow time, when earlier planting shemes are ending.  That's as good as its bad.  Yes to late appearances of blooms when earlier blossoms are done with and yes to being laid back and philosophical about one's garden produce but No to more to do, seemingly all at once clearance-wise and harvesting, and the less well-developed veg and flowers and late bloomers, is definitely Not my thing this year.  Also who if any of us know what lies ahead, how things may or may not turn out and ...what if I cannot  garden at all next year, if I'm cast upon the shores of life, only watching from afar as others garden, grow and enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Well, the rain has stopped so perhaps I could get to my allotment garden for more dahlia pickings and for removinmg my French bean wigwam and his second batch of runner beans.

Up and out early before the rain comes is probably the best solution.  Forget the housework and other chores and simply concentrate of the veg-scene as much as possible.

Cheerio.

Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - We're now into September 2020 - Wednesday 2nd September - A month in the garden

Hi there,

I can't believe we're in September but its a fact, I believe !  We're having autumnal weather but its not autumn yet.  Its just a blip in the weather, and  our weather prospects will improve, as they always do in September, once schools open and children return to their lessoms.

Well, hi there, its still September but two weeks later, Wednesday16th September, and I've been busy harvesting since then.  In fact, I've been hard at work on all things green and harvestable since August but now the end is in sight and in fact, harvest end should be the 29th September, which is only just over one week away.  And with this present very hot spell, certain plants are delaring harvest-end already.  It's just too hot to do too much, even if you are at your site from early morning ie 7am and, unfortunately, we just cannot manage that time of the morning !  Yet we keep trying, even going twice a day - as early as possible and then again pm time, both for just a couple of hours.

So leaves are yellowing, beans are still growing and courgette flowers are still appearing but whether or not we can provide enough watering for our cottage garden style bee and butterfly garden, is a matter of some conjecture.  We shall just have to do our very best and be jolly grateful for all we've gathered in so far.

On the other hand, we do need to clear faded crops away and prepare the soil, for all of my veggie seedlings presently growing well on my garden's work table and in my greenhouse.  

Harvesting leads, inevitably, to the kitchen for some serious washing, chopping, cooking and mixing for bottling of jams, chutney, pickles even mixtures of fresh herbs for freezing in butter and ice-cubes for future cookings !!

I love the whole growing-cooking-bottling idea but OMG its an awful amount of constant work and frankly I'm looking forward to making a final mix of green tomato chutney.  The pickled rhubarb is not a total success but my first two batches of bread and butter pickle (courgette and cucumber mix) are very much liked, and my tomato pickles are interesting.  The rhubarb, marrow and ginger jam will be useful for winter crumpets and toasts and I have marmalade enough to last 'til Christmas time.

Toodle loo for now and happy days to you all x

Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - Another Week's gone by - Wednesday 5 August 2020

Oh dear another week has gone and we are now well into August.  Non-holiday holiday time is upon us and we are making the best of things !

As I write, the sky is looking decidedly grey and the trees are being tossed about by a stiff breeze.  Thankfully, there's colour in the bright green grass and the dahlias are doing their best to look cheerful.  The Grandpa-Indoors has just put a pizza into the oven so soon we shall be eating something hot and delicious, with very little washing up to do!! One is thankful for little things like that!!!

This outrageous year rumbles on with CV easings, new restrictions, new warnings and goodness knows what sort of autumn and winter lie before us.  It is a great shame for people not to be able to fly away on holiday and return, without quarantine difficulties to cope with, but surely, foreign holidays are just tricky things to do right now and, really, best avoided.

We had lunch out again today, in a local PH and yesterday, too, at the National Herb Centre, over-looking rolling hilly views beyond.  Everyone's taking advantage of the Govt.'s initiative "Eat out to help out" and jolly good too.  Let's hope it really does help our hospitality industry during August and, also beyond, into September and onwards.

Last week, 29th July, comemorated the wedding anniversary of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles in 1981, now 39 years on..  Almost forty years ago.  Half a life-time, just like that.  It is amazing how quickly time goes by.  All the changes which have taken place since then, in all our lives, probably in this year alone, equate to an equal amount of change which has been brought about in this one year alone, this Covid-19 Pandemic year of 2020.

Not just an awful year because of Covid-19 but deaths too, such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, whilst under arrest, at the hands of a uniformed white police officer, sparking the "Black Lives Matter" protest, bringing worldwide unrest  in its wake.

Now, once again Beirut is in the eye of a storm, suffering the consequences of an massive port 

explosion, possibly brought about by lack of attention to detail.  Thousands injured, many killed and very many people left homeless.  What a tragedy for all concerrned.

Yet this year of 2020 is not all bad of course, for we've commemorated the 75th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 1945.  Now on 15 August 2020, we shall be commemorating VJ Day of 1945, marking both the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War.  Senior members of our Royal Family will be taking part in various ceremonies that Saturday and its a day for many of us to be connected to our TV sets to witness these happenings

I wonder if we will have a day of commemoration for all those lives lost to Covid-19 and the tremendous array of life changes we have, and still are, becoming accustomed to?? I do sincerely hope so.

Gardening - that blissful occupation which has so fully consummed my days this year since April -thankfully continues.  Try as hard as I may, I now fully accept, my energies will not bring about a total completion of all the ideas and schemes begun earlier this year.  There simply are not enough hours in the day to bring everything to that state of perfection I whistfully envisioned one early sunlight  morning.  It simply can't be done.  No.  But what has been created, done and executed is not to be  disregarded.  I remain fully pleased with my efforts.  Whatever has been achieved is a nod to the future, a promise of better things to come and an inherent belief in the future of mankind.  I am already excitedly thinking of all the new veggies I might want to grow next year, for it is that very growth that excites and enlivens my existance.

I am already dreaming of a picking flower garden somewhere, to complement my present planting schemes and the opportunity to grow an even wider choice of flowers.  Ah, if only.  Thank goodness, one can still daydream of future possibilities, not forgetting the fact that it would take a miracle of some great proportion, for this to come about !!!

Happy dreaming folks.

Be safe stay well............... and happy staycations !

Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - Wednesday 29 July - Cucurbits

Dear Friends,

I am rather consumed by courgettes right now,  This is my first successful year of growing and harvesting these useful and delicious fruit and my colllection includes sprawling and climbing plants.

Courgettes and cucumbers are members of the  cucurbit family along with squash, marrows and pumpkin and all are heavy feeders.  I am also growing marrow and a cucumber amongst our allotment veggies and Him indoors is also growing greenhouse cucumbers, which are literally, romping away.

I am baking them into cakes, sauteing in oil and butter and grating for salads and there's a host of helpful recipes and comments from others about their choice of useses.  My fruits have been rather over-sized these past two weeks but I am now determined to pick them more frequently to ensure the production of small, slimmer fruit which really are much more attractive to the eye.

Now a marrow should be bigger but not enormous, despite what He says.  A large marrow certainly provides a good vehicle for filling with a variety of savoury ingredients for baking; steaming and serving with a cheese or herby sauce and an oven-roasted marrow is delicious.  Too enormous and they become tougher, thicker skinned and dry.

I am also trialling squash this year, another first, and todate, I have one tiny fruit emerging from beneath its canopy of greenery.  My marrow hasn't put in an appearance as yet but I'm hoping for great moves on its part.

I fed my garden yesterday with comfrey feed.  This feeding should have taken place last Friday but we were out to lunch with friends instead and my garden was not visited.  Then on Saturday, planting out a last collection of dwarf and climbing beans and becoming drenched to the skin by a heavy outburst of rain, we retreated indoors for the remainder of the weekend.  There was no GP for Him to watch on Sunday but I was fully occupied with domesticity and paperwork.

On Monday, in between persistent rain, I managed to garner a small harvest of curly endive - aka frisee and escarole, also lettuce, broad beans, courgette and runner beans.  Names can be bothersome.  Endive is chicory for Brits., Endive in France and then there is Belgian Endive.  Chicory is a small, conical vegetable, grown underground to prevent greening-up and spreading out, has a slightly bitter taste and was a vegetable I used to eat with salads many years ago.  I don't buy it now, which is a puzzle.

Chicory root is ground for a coffee substitute.  Camp Coffee contained chicory essence.  This is another item I've not bought for many years.  My mother used to buy Camp Coffee regularly and I used to buy it only for particular recipe uses.  Fashion and disinclination get in the way somehow.  On the other hand, peanut butter is now a magic ingredient for my son's fav. cookies which, of course, are only very rarely baked as a great treat.  Yet many years ago, its presence in our shopping trolley was a weekly "must-buy".  Indeed, there used to be great conversational gatherings, just to dispute the different varieties and their  representative benefits or deficiencies.   The nutty variety was a "must-have".  I even used it in a chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge recipe...utterly delicious which, devotee that I was, could only consume a tiny amount at any one time !!!

Food is a great consuming fact of life.  Its production fascinating.  Its cuisine delightful and varied and its study a life-long interest of mine.

Happy eating x  Be safe stay well and don't forget to eat up your greens - they're good for you !

Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - Week 15 and counting - Sunday 12 July 2020

Well, hello there,

My useful gardening week's work is complete for now.   Plants staked, moved and pruned.   All major diggings done, only little clumps of earth to dig out to allow an extra vegetable plant to be inserted like beetroot, turnip or some other.  My herb seedlings are now being pricked out into the next pot size and stored in the cold frame.  I am running out of sowing space and table space and now there's a raft of new seeds for sowing.  Wallflower seeds should have been sown several weeks ago and since then, sometime in June, they should have been pricked out for their autumn growth but, as you must see,  I am rather behindhand with my garden planting.  Ah well, better late than never !!!

Its a grand life, the gardeners' routine.  There's aways something to do, something to do tomorrow, something that should have been done the day before last week and your list of things you really would like to do, if only you could make the time.

So while I was at my allotment, the world went on turning and Covid-19 is still very much with us.  Despite this, our world is opening up.  Yet all the while, little outbreaks of the virus are happening at home and also worldwide.  Scientists warn of long future days of living with the disease.  Face masks are now to be worn more often and widely too.  The days of horrified excitment of the beginning of Covid-19 are behind us now.  We are left with the contemplation of all that is to come of the disease itself,  a living-with recovery period, a new and useful vaccine and a real recovery of the world's economy; and making it possible for mankind to recover the working life, soonest.

On Friday we bade a final farewell to Dame Vera Lynn, the Forces Sweetheart, who sang her way into our hearts many years ago, during WW2, and where she will remain 'til memories have faded completely away and life is no more.  A Spirtfire Fly-Past thrilling for all family, friends and contempories able to be present in Dame Vera's home village of Ditchling.  "We'll Meet Again" is a compelling, romantic and positive force to carry us forward.  RIP Dame Vera - yours is the legend that will not be forgotten xxx

This week has been busy for happenings.  The first Test Match cricket between Team England and Team West Indies at Southampton, in a safety bubble for all players and support team, but no spectators, no saliva use for the ball and no game as known before.

Jack Charlton's death on Friday, 10 July, is announced and the sporting world mourns his loss.

The weekend is the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, begun in the summer of 1940.  The Imperial War Museum's retelling of the story of this major air campaign will be exciting and thrilling and Duxford is a brilliant venue to visit.  We enjoyed an Air Show there a few years ao and toasted our presence with gin and tonic and a super picnic.  I do hope you were there to enjoy the spectacle

. 

Foreign travel became possible for some on Friday.  The Styrian GP began on Friday with a first practise session on Friday, ending today, Sunday, with a good win for my fav. racing man, Lewis 

Hamilton.

Today's news of this year's Spring being the sunniest is memorable, for we all enjoyed its sunny days, while in lockdown but the weekend's CV death total for England of 44,650 is almost unbearable.  When will a vaccine be available for this horrendouos disease ??

To end on a happier note, the Watercress Line  out of Arlesford, Hampshire, has opened again this weekend,bringing much happiness to weekend train travellers.  We loved the experience of this special train  many years ago and the memory lingers on.

Well, its Monday tomorrow.  Back to sourdough bread making, my rhubarb shrub, housework and gardening...and we have another Sainsbury's food order to  welcome early tmrw. morning!!

Hey, hey world.  Goodnight, sleep well and enjoy the week ahead.

Margaret xxx

A Granny's Diary - 104 Days and Counting

Hello again.  I do hope everyone's well and staying safe..and keeping warm.  There have been a few cold mornings and nights recently but, oddly enough, humid days too.

I've noticed over the last few years, warm May days have resulted in cooler days in July and so it is happening again, now.  Just when we need good regular sunshine to encourage great harvests for home eating, the weather fails us and our earlier tan almost turns to rust.

A few notable dates fror this week - 1st July was the anniversary of the birthday of Princess Diana.  Also, on this day, the 23rd anniversary of Britsh Govt. Handback of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.   For Australia, at midnight on 1st July, Lockdown for the State of Victoria, for 36 suburbs, due to a rise of Covid-19 cases.

The  world's gone mad and only time will tell how everything-for-everyone will pan  out.

I've been gardening practically every day, madly digging a flower bed to create space for more veg. seedlings, of kale, turnips, chard, dwarf borlotti beans, parsley, dill and Fr. marigolds.  Its all very pleasing when done but jolly constant work making it happen.

Today, I've begun creating garlic water and chilli pepper sprays for pesky garden bugs, to avoid using chemical sprays, and hoping to put these into use, once I have the soft soap component.  This is the Castile soft soap entity of a veg. based product, free of any animal fats and synthetic ingredients.  Soft soap is wonderful and may be used for many household and personal usage, for pets and for garden sprays, and it is the original soap made in the Mediterranean area when it was made with olive oil.  Now it can be made with hemp, coconut, almond, walnut or castor oil. It has a very high PH rating of 8.9.

Talk of Hong Kong reminds me of a two-day stop-over there on my way home from Australia.  It was a most marvellous visit and very excting.

Its the Austrian GP this weekend with a feast of TV commitment, so Himself will not be with me today

at our allotment, which means I can get on and do all the things I need to do !!  High winds, windier conditions, showers and sunshine are all possible today so I shall not be bored but kept on my toes, trying to do all that's needed.  And of course, you simply never manage to achieve all you think to do !  I mean, its just too much and time runs away with you, but its great fun trying!

Another anniversary for us to note and celebrate today, is the 72nd birthday anniversary of the NHS, our wonderful health service which began in 1948, a year after my birth.  How difficult life must have been for so very many people before its conception and roll-out, simply cannot be imagined now.  We baby boomer generation must surely be very thankful and tonight we shall all be outside our homes, joining our neighbours in the anniversary thank you clap for our marvellous National Health Service.  

And of course, I must  also mention 4th July Independence Day anniversary for our American cousins and while celebrations must surely be subdued in this crazy Covid-19 year of 2020, I hope families manage to get some sense of togetherness for their special season.

I'm looking forward to a family Zoom call and then to singing happy birthday to a fourth grandchild .

Be safe stay well,

Margaret  xxx