Selfsufficientish.com

It doesn't grow on tree you know

Or so the wife tells me

So if I freeze the strawberries Green Aura,(1)Can I still make jam with them once defrosted?and (2) if I don't make jam,and freeze them,once defrosted do they go mushy?

Beautiful little gem lettuce and various salad leaves.
New potatoes, swiss chard, courgettes, just about to pick first broad beans.
Have picked 3 cucumbers from tunnel, and flat french beans in there just about ready :)
Oh, nearly forgot. Loads of strawberries, and have even had a few raspberries from the autumn fruiting ones that I left canes from last year on as an experiment :)

Yes you can hh and you don't need to mash them either (not that I do anyway ).

Green Aura:So to freeze Strawberries,am I right that you place them on a tray so they freeze separately and then transfer into a bag?Im guessing also you don't wash them first?TIA xx

We freeze in the tupperware box , but give them a shake after an hour or so to stop them sticking together

Elephant garlic is drying now!

I've never tried that doofa. I just freeze them, open, on a baking sheet then transfer them to a bag. They stay nice and separate and we can get a few out to make smoothies, or whatever, as we need them.

Fruit picking season now. Apart from strawberries I'm now picking raspberries, blueberries, morello cherries and just over 2 kilos of gooseberries were picked and bottled earlier in the week.
I could pick some blackcurrants if I could be bothered to pick them one at a time, there are one or two ripe on each bunch, but I'll wait until they are all ripe and pick the lot in one go.
Later today I will pick the first apricots for tomorrow's breakfast muesli.

EDIT: Would you believe it, I forgot the Loganberries
We have been picking them daily for a week or so and will be for another several weeks. There are so many this year that I'm not bothering to net the plant, the blackbirds can't even keep up and there's still more than enough for us.

I am now moving to the tropic of Cork, my blackcurrants are at least two weeks off being ripe. Do you grow your cherries and apricots inside or outside? I bought a nectarine tree for my polytunnel in March and it has turned out to be a peach, I don't do fuzzy , Wonder if I can put it outside, what do you think? I have a house wall that faces south I could possible put it up against, would that be alright?

Cherries are outside DnD but the apricots are on the back wall of the greenhouse. It's the third tree that's been in that spot, I started with a fig that produced masses of fruit, but what can you do with 5 bushels of ripe figs ? Eating them all would have had some "interesting" consequences. That came out and was replaced with a peach, which also produced masses of fruit which was pretty tasteless, so that came out and the apricot went in instead. That also produces masses of fruit, last year I picked a shade over 10 kilos, but they dry very well and has a fantastic flavour, fresh and dried. So eventually I got it right.
Your peach should do OK outside if it's not likely to be wind blasted, they can take many degrees of frost, in fact they need chilling to produce fruit. I have a nectarine outside and it seems to be happy.

Swedish turnip tops

Thinnings

Gooseberries, red currants, black currants, and a few strawberries. Also radishes and lettuce, and courgettes are starting. Oh, and onions (just for immediate use). Not much of anything, but enough to keep it interesting. And herbs, of course. Meant to get the anti-bird protection on the bushes today to save some currants for me, but it's bucketing down again...

It's a beautiful day down here for a change, but there was definitely an autumnal nip in the air first thing.

Grubbed out the courgettes today as I need the space for a late pea row, so later will be making a load of ratatouille.
First pick of runner beans later ..... all 2 of them. There's masses to come, but by the time they are ready these two will be too old.

We've had squillions of strawberries and raspberries. We are now into squillions of peas and broad beans and even courgettes.