Froze Mangetouts. Mixed coloured French Beans and Runners this morning. Am now watering flowerbeds crack of dawn and veg last thing at night to save labour (Takes an hour to do each as don't use hosepipes) - Interesting about Blueberries GWRS, project for next year perhaps. Bipsy Boo Baa (Known to his friends as 'Soldier') my wild kitten is doing a sterling job guarding the wild raspberries from marauding blackbirds. For those bird lovers out there -he never catches them -Just lurks and stares!!! Seems to do the trick. Hope your not melting Obelixx. O/H went off at 5am this morning to do saturday market and it was 20c then!! I love seeing the Moon and the Sun together during the day at this time of year. Something magical about it. BioD Meeting tonight so lots to report next week.
I am really pleased that the weather has turned out as predicted. Could do with a bit more rain though!! Picked first blackberries this am around Fishing Lake and made 3 jars of Blackberry & Apple Jam to lay down for Crumpets this Winter.
Here is the Lunar Calender 11-17th August
11th August - Fruit Day - Harvest Beans to dry and Tomato seed (Pop pulp in a gass of water for 24hrs, then drain off on kitchen paper, allow to dry and with tweezers, pick off seeds and place them inside sheet of kitchen paper and pop in an envelope -seal and keep somewhere cool and dark until sowing time.
12/13/14th August - Moon ascending in Taurus so Root Days. Sow Turnips and Onions. On 14th No gardening recommended until after 3.15pm Noeud ascending.
15/16th August - Change over time Moon descending 9.39pm on the 15th. Flower Days. Take some Rose cuttings, placing them in the shade in a mix of sand and non peat based mix. Protect from cold in Winter. Prick out sowing of bi-annuals and Hardy annuals sown 9-10th July. Keep well watered in semi shade.
17/18th August - Leaf Days. Prune evergreen hedges and rake out weeds in lawns.
Trying to keep up with picking and freezing at the moment, plus as usual too many lettuce ready at the same time, and tomatoes now coming on in greenhouse thick and fast. Delighted with my Cherokee Potatoes -as good as Jersey Royals, plus lovely ruby red skins so easy to spot in raised bed BEFORE I spear them!!! Now searching out good replacement Strawberry plants -What are your favourites??? I already have Cirofine/Mara de Bois and Gento. Would like a change to plant up in September.
Apart from some flash bang and a dribble early on Monday morning there has been no rain here and we're sweltering. The forecast has been very changeable - forecast changing from heavy rain with light show tomorrow morning and Thursday to lots of bang and flash with little rain and now back to downpours. We'll see.
Despite regular watering and some feed the Crown Prince, Utchiki Kuri and spaghetti squash are producing very few fruit and tiny ones at that. hardly ever eat potatoes so have given up growing them but our brassicas are good, especially the curly kale, Savoy and red cabbages. Been a bit hot for the pointy cabbage and they've blown.
I'll check on the strawberry labels when I'm down there watering later on. The tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies in the polytunnel get a daily 30 to 40 minutes of seep hose but I have to go and connect cos I use the same hosepipe to get to my nursery too.
Other than watering we've been staying indoors this week - moving furniture, painting etc. No jam making as we don't eat much bread either but I will be harvesting lots of tomatoes to make passata and hope the kitchen will be cooler for that in a day or too.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Hello Bio , thanks for update , wondered what September weathers going to be ?
Keeps threatening, storms / lightning/ rain not materialised as yet where we are , however , very muggy at moment and feels like a storm is again coming ?
water butts empty need to fill up at weekend if no rain ☔️
Somebody gave us some Cauliflower plant which I have put in a bed at allotment
Obelixx -Passata recipe PLEASE!! Inundated with tomatoes O/H sick of salad!!!
GWRS -Aha -You will have to wait for September Lunar Weather prediction!!! Delighted August so accurate -Spooky!!
Planted out 10 broccoli plants in raised bed where blighted tomatoes had been. Earthed up well with Mole hill soil. Now ready with shotgun to shoot Cabbage White butterflies!!! (Not really!) -Just heard thump on window -thought it was a pigeon but no -beautiful hawk crashed into window. It's OK just stunned. Think it's a youngster. Took about 6 mins to recover so all cats banned from going outside (Boots the Bengal suffering from Bee sting anyway so not in mood to go out) Bird not injured and flew off -Great privelege to see it so close. Will look it up in book after lunch -Not a Kestrel definately.
Watch out for Lunar Calender tomorrow. -Off to freeze more beans!! Oh -Just one question in France it's called Chicory in UK Endive -Do I blanche it plus when???
@biofreak Here in the South of France we call them Endives. I used them as salad with a vinaigrette dressing with walnut oil and walnut vinegar and of course garlic!!
For passata, I have a Mediterranean method from my MIL. Cut up tomatoes and boil until soft. (10 mins). Using a vegetable mill (mine is hand turned) "pass" the tomatoes through this. It will separate the cores, seeds and skins. (Throw them away) Pour the puree back into a pot and boil and stir until reduced to a porridge thickness. Cool. Freeze with a sprig of basil on top. I don't use seasonings.
You can go a step further which is reducing the concentrate even further until there is no watery line around the mixture. Add a good amount of salt (which preserves it) and boil again. Keep stirring all the time. Be careful as it spits so you could need to tie the wooden spoon to a stick to keep stirring to prevent skin burn!! Cool and turn into a roasting pan, tray or any shallow recipient and dry in the sun until it is like pastry. (3-5 days) Roll it up and press into jars. Cover with olive oil to seal. Keep in dark cupboard.
Hi @biofreak. Sorry, but didn't find any strawberry labels - the perils of making OH IC soft fruits.
I don't have a passata recipe. I just fill my preserving pan with chopped tomatoes and cook them down to concentrate them. Sometimes I add garlic and/or herbs. I blitz them in the food processor and don't strain out seeds or skin so we get all the roughage too. It the gets potted up in sterilised 450g jars and they then get boiled up in a pan of water to sterilise the seal.
I liked using the leaves as "spoons" to hold little brown shrimps (cerevettes grises) mixed with a bit of grainy mustard and some proper mayo - great for nibbles and apéro.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
That sounds nice @Obelixx with the endive leaves. Also fill with a little Roquefort cheese, crème fraîche and a chip of walnut on top. Yum! I like to eat whole endives as a snack - like an apple!! Not to everyone's taste!
Thanks for info -The Chicory is growing into what looks like a Cos Lettuce with enormous leaves, it is bittersweet, so may just use it in mixed salads. The mystery bird yesterday was a peregrine falcon -obviously a youngster and certainly not very good at hunting yet!! It had spotted a dead mouse lying on the gravel and obviously mijudged its dive (they can get up to 189mph apparently and thumped into the window. It stayed around most of the day in the garden, and then flew off none the worse for wear just injured pride!! -It was so thrilling to be so close up to such a beautiful bird.
Anyway here is the Lunar Calender for 18-25th August then GWRS I shall tip you off on September weather!! The Garden Fairs 29/30th august and 5/6th september have just confirmed that they are still going ahead so lots to look forward to.
18/19/20th August - New Moon on 19th at 3.41am. Fruit & Seed Days as Moon descending in Leo. Prune Peaches and Apricots just before you pick the last fruit, this will strengthen them to fruit again next season. Cut raspberries to the ground once they have stopped fruiting. Plant out new strawberries. BioD Tip which I tried with success last year -If you have no runners split older stolens with a knife, throw away centre and keep sprouting sides and replant. My crop this year has been much bigger than usual from these new shoots.
21/22/23 August - Try not to garden between 6.50am and 5.05pm on 21st as Moon perigée. Root Days. Lift the last potatoes and Onions if it is dry enough leaving both on the surface to dry off in the sun for 1-2days. These are good days to lift beetroot/celeriac/carrots and radish as the vitamins are particularly rich on Root Days (Not sure how true this is -Comments welcome!!)
24/25th August - Moon descending in Libra so Air & Flower Days. Take cuttings from pelargoniums (as opposed to geraniums). Plant some Madonna and /or Jersey Lilies so that bulbs establish roots whilst soil warm.
So there we are -Off to make your super Passata Obelixx plus Lemon Balm Cookies to freeze down for these super Garden Fairs to come!! -I have a long list of 'wants' so need to sell lots to buy lots!!!
Thanks @biofreak. I have what was 15 litres of big yellow tomatoes boiling down right now - juicy, lots of flesh, not a lot of seeds and by the time I'm done there'll be about 5 or 6 litres of concentrated tomato goodness to blitz and bottle.
We have only just eaten the last of last year's jars in a soup a couple of weeks ago so the post bottling boiling really works well for sterilising and sealing in ordinary preserve jars. The only trouble I had was with one of those fancy double layered lid things so I use those just for storing dry goods now. They'll probably end up full of screws and rawl plugs and the like.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
Despite regular watering and some feed the Crown Prince, Utchiki Kuri and spaghetti squash are producing very few fruit and tiny ones at that. hardly ever eat potatoes so have given up growing them but our brassicas are good, especially the curly kale, Savoy and red cabbages. Been a bit hot for the pointy cabbage and they've blown.
I'll check on the strawberry labels when I'm down there watering later on. The tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies in the polytunnel get a daily 30 to 40 minutes of seep hose but I have to go and connect cos I use the same hosepipe to get to my nursery too.
Other than watering we've been staying indoors this week - moving furniture, painting etc. No jam making as we don't eat much bread either but I will be harvesting lots of tomatoes to make passata and hope the kitchen will be cooler for that in a day or too.
water butts empty need to fill up at weekend if no rain ☔️
Somebody gave us some Cauliflower plant which I have put in a bed at allotment
stay safe
For passata, I have a Mediterranean method from my MIL. Cut up tomatoes and boil until soft. (10 mins). Using a vegetable mill (mine is hand turned) "pass" the tomatoes through this. It will separate the cores, seeds and skins. (Throw them away) Pour the puree back into a pot and boil and stir until reduced to a porridge thickness. Cool. Freeze with a sprig of basil on top. I don't use seasonings.
You can go a step further which is reducing the concentrate even further until there is no watery line around the mixture. Add a good amount of salt (which preserves it) and boil again. Keep stirring all the time. Be careful as it spits so you could need to tie the wooden spoon to a stick to keep stirring to prevent skin burn!! Cool and turn into a roasting pan, tray or any shallow recipient and dry in the sun until it is like pastry. (3-5 days) Roll it up and press into jars. Cover with olive oil to seal. Keep in dark cupboard.
I don't have a passata recipe. I just fill my preserving pan with chopped tomatoes and cook them down to concentrate them. Sometimes I add garlic and/or herbs. I blitz them in the food processor and don't strain out seeds or skin so we get all the roughage too. It the gets potted up in sterilised 450g jars and they then get boiled up in a pan of water to sterilise the seal.
I've never grown chicons as they are a Belgian invention (accidental find by a farmer in Overijse about 30kms from where we lived) and were freely and cheaply available on the few occasions we fancied some but the RHS offers this advice -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/vegetables/chicory#:~:text=Chicory%20prefers%20an%20open%2C%20sunny,and%205cm%20for%20mini%20leaves.&text=Cut%20back%20leaves%20to%202.5cm%20(1in)%20above%20the%20crown.
I liked using the leaves as "spoons" to hold little brown shrimps (cerevettes grises) mixed with a bit of grainy mustard and some proper mayo - great for nibbles and apéro.
We have only just eaten the last of last year's jars in a soup a couple of weeks ago so the post bottling boiling really works well for sterilising and sealing in ordinary preserve jars. The only trouble I had was with one of those fancy double layered lid things so I use those just for storing dry goods now. They'll probably end up full of screws and rawl plugs and the like.