Sunday 5 August 2012

Harvest time!

The rain damaged much of my bumper strawberry crop but I still managed to harvest enough to have a bowlful every day and spares to pass onto neighbours. The damaged ones I combined initially with the high pectin gooseberries (another bumper crop!) to make into delicious jam, flavoured by elderflowers collected on my daily walks until their season passed. The balckcurrant bush fruited properly for the first time and I have made several jars of jam, easy because of the fruit's high pectin content. Last night we had a mixed berry and apple crumble, but that may be the last this year; only the rhubarb is still looking good for another harvest.

I am going to pick the blackcurrant leaves to see what the tea made from them tastes like. Whilst part of the herbal medicine repertoire they are not as well publicised as other herbs which seems a pity when they are so often there in people's gardens. The nutritional beneft of the berries is well known; isn't it wonderful that so many berries are both delicious and good for us! Already there have been whole families out picking bilberries on the moors. Next up will be elderberries and blackberries.

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