I picked grapes!

Trying one, Sep 2020

Not sure, Sep 2020

I asked the husband to take a photo of the basket of grapes and send it to me, but got these two photos instead.  Please take my word for it that there was a basketful--and that I didn't actually pick all the clusters because I couldn't reach them all;  I left about three or four for the birds.

Actually the birds alerted me the grapes were ready:  a family of sparrows were tweeting very happily in the almond tree, which is entwined with a grape vine.  I knew what that meant and I went storming over, to their great dismay.  They scattered and I quickly got a basket and secateurs to get as many bunches as I could.  Luckily only a few grapes had been vandalized and I weighed the remainder at 9 oz.  

Not a huge haul, true.  I ate most of them myself within a few days;  the son and daughter weren't too impressed, though the husband approved.  Variety Phoenix, and I bought the cuttings off ebay several years ago.  They have a nice sweet flavor but aren't seedless--somewhat of a drawback.  

 In the future I may make raisins if faced with a large enough harvest but if not, even a basketful of free grapes once a year is a nice treat, particularly since they are tucked away in the corner of the Perennials section and not actually taking up any ground space--or even casting any shade. 

I have another vine right up next to my house, which is supposed to grow up a specially made arbor in order to shade my kitchen window, but I claim late pregnancy and new baby as my excuses for not training it this spring (it had no fruit this year).  I'll definitely make that a priority next spring.

Eating and preserving runner beans

Runners, Sep 2020

 After a very slow start, my runner beans finally started producing enough to actually bother with.  I suspect it was the sunny/dry weather that stopped them setting any beans, despite flowering profusely.  It's a little cooler and wetter and there are lots of beans. 

But.  

It's the end of September.  Even though they are still flowering like mad, I know I only have a couple weeks left, if that.

From left: dried figs, bottled apples, dried runner beans, dried peas; Sep 2020

We love runner beans (and for the past few summers they have felt like a real treat, seeing as their season has been so short) and have been eating them every other day or so, but I'm still trying to skim off some of the harvest and put them in the dehydrator.  I chop them into big bite sized pieces, blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water, then dehydrated until brittle. 

Oh, and those baskets of apples from earlier this month?  I bottled apple halves as shown in the photo above, made applesauce (frozen), made a few jars of apple butter; and along with eating them fresh for several weeks, baked them unsweetened with just a little cinnamon and nutmeg and served with homemade custard:  a big hit.  Oh, and the peels and cores are fermenting into scrap vinegar on my counter too. We finally got to the end of them--now it's time to start scavenging some from further afield!

Eating and preserving figs

My Brown Turkey fig tree is only small but it's getting more productive every year.  I'll need to give it a little bit of pruning this winter after it dies back, as some of the branches are getting very long and floppy.

For the past month I've been picking a few figs every week to go into the dehydrator;  I cut them in quarters, slip off the skins (when very ripe, they just come right off) and then slice the fruit thinly.  They take about a day and a half in my dehydrator.

It's a very nice fig for eating fresh, and the son and I have plans for some homemade fig newtons, a type of cookie I haven't eaten for years.  I think I'll make some almond shortcrust pastry and fill it with some rehydrated fig paste.  They're already very sweet, so I won't add any sugar.  

I'm also planning them for the Christmas pudding, as my newest effort made in January had to be thrown out earlier this summer:  it was covered in mold.  Actually it looked like the white mold like on Brie and wasn't entirely unpleasant (I had a taste), but it wasn't the result I was aiming for.  I keep putting off making the new one, but now I've got some dried figs there's no excuse.

Eating and preserving apples

Laxton Fortune apple tree, 2020

Both our small apple trees are laden this year, unlike last year when we got none from either.  I've been picking four or five from Laxton Fortune every few days for two weeks now, and yesterday I sent the son out with a big basket with an injunction to fill it, preferrably with all the remaining apples.  He filled it all right, but didn't get all of them.

They make for excellent eating fresh:  juicy and a good balance between tart and sweet, and very thin skin.  I thinned them (and the other tree, Sparta) earlier this summer trying to reduce the fruit clusters down to one or two only, but it's obvious that I missed some--several are too small to bother with. 

Besides eating fresh, which I have been doing with vigor, I am now in the position of having a large basket of apples to preserve.  What to make?  I'm not making cider this year, the usual contender.  Apple butter, applesauce, dried apples?  I better decide soon!

The other tree, Sparta, is just about ready for picking now;  we've eaten a few and will no doubt soon be emptying the tree.  While Laxton Fortune is supposed to be a good cooker as well as eater, Sparta is really more of an eater (aka dessert apple).  Maybe I'll dry some when faced with a big basket of these.  Wish me luck!