Todays harvest

We've popped down to the plot from time to time over the last couple of weeks, to water, to hoe, to pick yet more blackcurrants and gooseberries, the first courgettes, lettuces beetroots and some potatoes.  I haven't been since about Tuesday, when I brought our youngest son; back from uni, to see how it's getting on. But today, after our week of blazing sun, the odd shower, and then last nights downpour, a transformation astounded us. The sunflowers have grown giant sized and have golden flowers.

But everything else has started to produce fabulous goodies too. Our harvest was enormous. 

 Kilos more blackcurrants, some raspberries, the last gooseberries, onions, beans, cucumbers, beetroots, lettuce, chard and a little squash.

We are going away for a couple of weeks on Thursday, you can be sure I'll be down on the plot, tending and harvesting then too. We wont be able to shut our freezer. Yum. yum.

watering very early in the morning...

As it has been boiling hot with our mini heatwave; 3 hot days constitutes a heatwave after all the grey  sky and rain. I went to the plot very early this morning.

So I fed, watered, weeded and picked.
Yet another  kilo of strawberries; I'm sure the bindweed is acting as a natural net cus the birds haven't gorged the lot.
More blackcurrants and there are hundreds more to harvest...  (blackcurrant-sorbet.)
and... the first gooseberries.

gorgeous green globes. I searched for a gooseberry sorbet recipe and found one to try. http://www.cookyourdream.com/2011/07/gooseberry-sorbet.html

From the tasting as I make it, it should be as good as the strawberry one. Mmmmm.

Strawberry sorbet

I went to the allotment yesterday with Maya; my oldest friends lovely daughter who has been visiting us. We picked two and a half kilos of strawberries... yum, yum!

 and some black currents. So, what to do with them?
We planed to make some blackcurrant cordial, http://www.britishlarder.co.uk/home-made-blackcurrant-cordial/#axzz2YANRjAjL  (I made some lovely elderflower cordial last week. http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/efowercordial.htm - but without the citric acid, because everywhere had run out.) But, first the strawberry's.

 So, freeze some of them, you put them individually on a baking tray in the freezer for a bit, then put the frozen berry's into a bag and store them in the freezer.
Then the strawberry sorbet. I found a recipie at  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6550/strawberry-sorbet

500 grams strawberries
250 grams sugar
250 mls water
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 egg white.
It worked perfectly... yum yum

Thank goodness we went again today to picked some more and do some weeding of course.