Getting ready for the Indian Summer

Peaches and Wine | How divine!

The peaches are ripe, and the juice runs down your chin. The dahlias are glorious, and I can see the odd leaf here and there looking rather tired after the long summer heat. It's coming the Autumn, and I shall hopefully be ready. I made a run to Noble Orchards and bought a large box of peaches, mine did not do well this year. Although my nectarines and apricots made up for them many times over.

Once again I have tomatoes coming out of my ears, though this type I'm not particularly keen on, so I went to Ted's house down the road and he loaded me up with some goodies from his plants.

Dahlias

Ted's Heirloom Tomatoes

Indigo Rose Heirloom Tomatoes

The secret to good flavoured chutney is not just about ingredients, but having a good, long simmer for hours over a couple of days. Reducing the ingredients into a thick sweet mass prior to canning. Ideally simmering for at least half a day, then reheating prior to canning the following day should work best.

After 8 hours looks gorgeous

I used a combination of large heirloom tomatoes and Indigo Rose, which has a rather bland taste, similar to a roma, but the colour is magnificent.

Use Summer Tomato|Peach chutney as a condiment with roast chicken, beef or pork. Slather the chutney on a cheese or vegetable baquette sandwich, or pour some over cream cheese. Serve with crackers for a simple snack with drinks.

Ingredients
2 cups each white and brown sugar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups red wine vinegar
2 cups balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp peeled fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp each of ground cumin, cardamon, coriander
1 dash of red chili pepper flakes
7-1/2 lbs tomatoes, chop into large pieces. Large tomatoes, remove skin and seeds prior to chop
2 large peaches, chopped
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 lb golden raisins
2 lemons, use zest and juice from both

Instructions
In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, combine the sugars, vinegar, and spices. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lower the heat, add tomatoes, onions, raisins, lemon zest and juice. Keep stirring. Add peaches after an hour. Cook, uncovered, over low heat for 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat, and put lid on. In the morning slowly reheat, cook for an additional 2 hours then begin your canning process.

Store in sterile jars. Process jars in a water bath for 10 minutes after water begins to boil. Lift from water bath, let sit for 5 minutes then remove and cool.

Makes 12 8 oz jars

Harvest time, and it's busy

Juliette Heirloom Tomatoes

Kadota Figs

Cleaning and stemming

Roasted Tomatoes .... almost

Drying tomatoes

All the harvest seems to be ripening all at the same time, which rather puts me into a dither. Yesterday was spent gathering all the ripe figs, halving them and setting them out for drying. After 18 hours there is still a tad of moisture inside, but I bagged them immediately, and they are now in the freezer for use sometime in the winter, when I absolutely need to taste some summer on a cold, damp chilly day.

Today I did manage to gather a large basket of heirloom tomatoes called Juliette, they are medium small and quite similar to Roma. Thick skinned so it took quite a while for me to prepare them for drying. I'm trying two methods one in the ovenis roasted tomatoes, and the other method is straight drying with a new dehydrator I purchased last week.

Roasted Tomatoes - Cook at 350°F

2 lbs small Roma type tomatoes halved I used Juliette
1 bulb of garlic cleaned, and half large cloves
6 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp grated sea salt
1 good dash of red pepper flakes
Juice from whole lemon
Approx. 1/2 cup olive oil

In an large dish, combine tomatoes, garlic, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice, drizzle the olive oil over the mixture.

Cook for approximately 1.75 hours, then stir to make sure they’re done. Serve over pasta, mozzarella, or put on ciabatta for a simple meal.

I am a little upset but it's my own fault there was a plant growing in the garden, actually there was three but I pulled one sadly. After the fact I found out it was a peanut plant, I was quite tickled that I had grow peanuts. So last week as I was clearing the raised beds I pulled out the peanut plant, set it aside to dry in the sun on the hopes that I could use the peanuts and sow them next year. Foiled by something I suspect a squirrel dined on my organic accident peanuts. I'm thinking they must have grown from my compost from last year. A happy accident. The first photo shows the peanut plant lurking between the peppers, and the second shows my meager harvest that was stolen by a ninja squirrel. I still have to do something with all the peppers, and of course the apples too. Wish me luck. Happy harvest to you all.

My latest experiment ..... I rather like

Well got busy today, finally got an inspiration regarding a gift, from the person who actually the gift was for. I had looked and looked at Buddha quotes and didn't find any that made sense to me, which does make sense since I'm not Buddhist, just ask my sister she will thoroughly confirm that fact since I killed a mole, who apparently at some point in time was someone's grandmother. In fact recommended that I might rethink becoming one. Thank you Agnes.

Any way, my dear friend Sharon who is a Buddhist a very caring and lovely person has her birthday coming up and I wanted to create something special, I think I have.

A week ago her very dear friend Meemie who lives in India sent out an email, which Sharon  forwarded to eight of her friends.

==========================================

My table of 8:

I am supposed to pick 8 women who have touched my life and whom I think might participate.

  Please send this back to me. Remember to just read the quotation.

That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached.

Just send this to eight women and see what happens...

If you don't feel like forwarding it, just enjoy!

Quote:"May  today there be peace within. May you trust that you are  exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in  yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you  are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and  allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us."

Perfect, I got eight white plates and began inscribing and scribbling on. Tomorrow into the oven to bake the ink paint. This could be special, I have my fingers crossed, I know it will be.

Wildflower Ride in Paradise

My son in law is up in the area today, well down the hill actually with his parents in Chico. This weekend is the infamous 100 mile bike ride race. It's actually for those who are insane. We live on the top of some buttes, that's why they call it Butte County. Sometimes youngsters delete the 'e' on the state sign posts and for a while we are all butt's, I always smile when I come back from San Francisco and see the changed sign. I live with butts .... too funny. Anyway I digress, so we live 2000' above the valley floor, and the cliffs resemble the Grand Canyon, only on a smaller scale. There is a road called Honey Run, that virtually climbs straight up the cliffs. It's one lane, they say it's two, it isn't. AND there is no honey about it, it's not a sweet ride it's a nightmare and terrifying honestly. Do not drive this road. When you cross the covered bridge, turn back and save your sanity. Anyway this is rather the beginning of the ride from Chico, hence me saying it's insane. Of course later there's the climb up Table Mountain to the plateau. I remember back 2006 and Dan did this right before the wedding, I wasn't very nice when I think I said you will be at the wedding even if we have to prop you up, do not have an accident. He didn't thankfully. So on to other things Etsy is all in a dither they apparently are not as focused on handmade as they used to be, which is rather sad in a way. I know things evolve. However, in this day and age where evolution has taken a turn for the worse especially in the growing of plants and foods, where GMO is ruining the future. And more and more folk are returning to growing and nurturing the land by hand and using heirloom seeds. This move by Etsy almost seems to fly in the face of a new revolution taking place. I'm not sure in the long term that this bodes well for Etsy. It might, but I think the handmade concept being an exclusive thing on Etsy has shrivelled drastically especially for their client base. Quite sad to watch and read about. There is a forum thread about show your hands, and in a way was why I was posting today. I'm older, made my bones so to speak in the corporate world. Now my hands made my life happy. I dig, weed, cook, paint, create, knit, embroider, sew. I owe all to my Mother who did all of this so well, and she wrote, poetry and words that I treasure. She also loved opera. A vastly superior person to me, I just do the basics, and that's fun, I love simple, can't do complicated things. I am outspoken, because I can't dissemble well. I speak from the soul and gut. I do know I'm not malicious so that's good, and I don't do envy. So back to today, I baked bread for the first time since I was in Domestic Science at Sir Thomas Bennett in Crawley. My creation today, is f'ing awesome, smells great, the hubby loves it and it was cheap to do, and not labour intensive. Seriously a lazy bread bake :) And this is the blog where I found the recipe, seriously do not throw this link away, you will need it one day. So with these old hands I baked bread today, I finished sewing up a thing that my daughter saw on Pinterest out of linen and cotton, and managed to redesign and create something that I think she can throw on and be happy wearing.

Dear Badu, I shall miss you

We've spent so many wonderful years together. You were my first grand-daughter and very special. You brought comfort to my Dad, and to so many of our relatives you meant so much, Jean and John will be so sad when they hear how ill you got. Gary says he knows we shall meet you again, it needs to be soon.

In the meantime, enjoy chasing the waves, and racing in the sun and shadows. I shall think of you often and miss your woof, we shall be looking for you. I hope it's soon. Luv, e

Fighting off tomato worms and eating figs

What can I say, every day I wander rather aimlessly in the afternoon when it's too hot to rake up all the oak leaves that are raining down like they think this is October or weeding. (Now that was a runalong sentance. A bit like my wandering).

I do munch my way through the garden, but have also been much better this year at picking crops right before ripening, therefore, haven't shared too much with the birds. The late rain and unusual snow seriously made the garden bounty much less this year. But perhaps the fruit trees need a good rest from producing, in fact I notice that they are much taller and have loads of new growth. I will practice better thinning next year to help them get even stronger.

About those huge tomato worms, well they don't stay on the tomatoes, they also like peppers and eggplant, I've been picking them off and offering them to the birds but they are so well camouflaged they are difficult to spot, and my glasses are constantly slipping down my nose because I am peering so hard though leaves and stalks.

Never mind, several baskets of garden goodies have been shared and loads of stuff has been quick blanched and frozen for later in the year when I am without the benefit of immediate fresh things in the garden. I am in process of persuading Mr. G to build about 4 more raised beds, I do want more, but will ease him into the project. The shade clothe I bought, well I probably didn't need this year (it just doesn't pay to outfox Mother Nature), we haven't been blazing hot in fact only turned the AC on twice so far this year. Quite unusual.

Almost all the major work has been done, now we are waiting for the gutters and downspouts to be installed next week, then we can refurbish the decks install railings and DONE!!

Will get some big tubs to catch rain during the coming rainy season. And then there is the chickens I want, shhhh it's a secret at the moment from Mr. G. But I have picked out the perfect spot for them, huge smile on my face and I found a chicken site that I can purchase the fluffy little things.

Soon it will be mid July 2011

Weather burst into a heatwave, one moment it was in the 60's and now for the last few weeks mid 90's. Good for the heirloom tomatoes, not as comfortable for the folk working on our upgrades to the compound.

The studio inside is almost completed and the painter has been toiling away to make the building match the main house and garage. The breezeway is done, and it's painted, one week we got rain the next 100 degrees, it works we don't get wet nor sunburnt from whatever Mother Nature throws at us. I do have to replant/transplant some things, but I've got until October to figure that all out.

The new Gazebo is going up in the spot that used to have an ancient carport, that was seriously on it's last legs I don't know how it stayed standing. Painter will be here tomorrow to prime the wood, but the start of the roof line is on as of today, soon more shade to putter near the raised beds, now that will be even more of a pleasure.