More apples

My good mate Kim (hi Kim) kindly let me raid her apple tree. She just lets them
fall and then throws them away :( So I came away yesterday with 5 carrier bags full and that was from the branches I could reach from standing.

I've sorted the apples into 'use now' and 'store for later' and put the 'store for later' ones in trays in the garage wrapped in sheets of newspaper.

Then I have set about starting to use the 'use now' ones. I've made iced apple souffle and apple snow, 3 apple cakes (now frozen) had pork chops with apple for dinner, along with boiled potatoes from the allotment. I peeled and chopped some using my new apple corer and slicer tool. Anybody with alot of apples to process needs one of these handy little gagets, they save hours of chopping. The apple slices are in the freezer waiting to be turned into apple pie on Sunday.

On the allotment front, I covered part of the plot with black platic today in preparation for winter. I put it over the green manure I had sown a few weeks ago. It was raining and I just did not have the time to dig it all in. I'll pull up the plastic in the spring and turn the soil when its all rotted down.

I also dug up the last of the potatoes, although I always manage to leave some which pop up as new plants the following year. Trouble if I can't bear to chop them down, so I end up with random poato plants in weird places.

I bought some manure a few days ago, so will cover the bases of the fruit trees with newspaper and cover that in manure sometime soon. I bought some garlic bulbs too and must remember to get them in the ground soon, rather than forget and plant them in spring, like I did this year, which resulted in a poor crop suitable only for making bug spray.

Tomato soup

2 1/2 lb of tomatoes later and Ive just sat and enjoyed my first bowl of home made cream of tomato soup. Mmmmmmmm

I also found another apple tree and spent the afternoon peeling apples to make apple cake, apple sauce with lumps in and just cut up the rest of the apples to make smooth apple sauce (cooked and put through a sieve). I peeled and cut up the rest of the pears but still need to process and bottle them and still have a crate of apples to wade my way through along with the rest of the carrots..............I guess I wont be going to bed any time soon.

Volunteering

Not very gardening like I know, but this afternoon I spent a couple of hours with Dave at the LILI head office, giving him and Taryn a bit of help with promoting some of the courses they list.
I quite fancy a go at basket making, cheese making, smallholding, keeping pigs, tree pruning and sheep keeping to name a few (actually I fancy having a go at just about all of it).

When I got home my lovely Mummy had brought a big box full of apples from her tree round and a smaller box of pears from my sisters tree (thanks guys). I made apple crumble and custard for pudding and peeled and cored a load of pears which are now sitting in an electric water bath in kilner jars.
On Thursday I'll process the remainder of the pears and all the apples. I have made apple jelly and apple butter, so what to make now.........?

Right now I need to scrub and blanch all the carrots I pulled up from the allotment and get them in the freezer.

On a side note
It Rained!!!:)))))
Which means my water butt is full. On the down side, the pressure isnt high enough for me to use a timer off it for the watering system, so I guess the water butt system will be manually operated and the mains supply one on the timer.

I have several sunflower heads, so if anybody wants some sunflower seeds, give me a shout and £1.00 P+P (UK only) and I'll post some out to you.

Bird Table

I've been wanting a bird table for a while now, so rather than pay someone or somewhere else to do the job for me, I thought I'd make one.
This is the result of an afternoons work in the garden before my night shift on Friday. I'm very pleased with myself although I cut the felt too small and have to recut a piece for the roof.
The weird thing sticking up is a sunflower head from the allotment. I'm hoping the birds will like the seeds.
Next bird project is a nesting box and I'm trying to work out how to put a web cam in it so I watch as the birdies hatch and grow.