The kitchen beckons

I have been busy in the kitchen in the last 2 weeks this weekend I had the steam juicer going and made 4.5pints of Apple juice I bottled 4pints and put the .5 in the fridge for breakfast.
It keeps well if you leave the bottles on the side and put in the fridge when you open.

The steam juicer I have was made in Sweden and i use it to make juice it is easy to keep in bottles and saves room in the freezer.
apples, blackberries, any fruit that is spare you can always add apple and blackberry and sugar to make a jelly, Blackberry will make a nice syrup if sugar is added.

The basket will hold 11pounds of fruit just wash and chop apples leave the cores and pips and all you are left with is a cooked pulp.

I found my first field mushrooms of the year this weekend and tonight I found a lot more it may be a good year this year.

I had a day Bottling wine 18 bottles of Dandelion flower and 11 bottles of Parsnip of course I tried the half bottles just to see if they would pass the test and they did.

The parsnip is on the left and the dandelion is on the right.

These are dandelion I made 3 gallon this year and i must say its very good. these six bottles are the first to be bottled.

For a simple life I find it hard to find the time at the moment with making things in the kitchen and wine and things but it will get better when I start to fill the freezer.

on the way out of work tonight Kaz gave me what i thought was 1 marrow but it turned out to be 3 so Barbara will have to see it her dog walking friends will take 1 each.

Combines are working overtime to bring in the harvest

The walks have seemed to have run into each other just lately the last 2 weekends and a few nights the combines have been working long hours where ever you look the fields are alive with the farmers hard at work they have been working day and nights with the lights flashing away on the combines.

I went down to the wind turbines last Saturday for a change the sunshine reflected on the turbines.

This is what it looks like standing under the blades of the turbines above your head massive lumps of blades coming round and they don't look very high above the ground when you stand still.

The combines are no sooner out of the field and the balers are baling up the straw ready for the crew yards for winter bedding for the cows.

The fields will soon be ploughed ready for the next crop.

The river board have been out with the weed cutters these 2 were moored near the new concrete steps that were built in the spring.

Mind the teeth toffee as they will cut dogs as well as reeds and weeds.

One is a cutter the other has a scoop for clearing the weeds each one is man by one person.

The dust rises as the combines work away to bring in the harvest.

The other Saturday as I walked the dogs 2 men in a boat passed I never got the name but it looked so relaxing and later when we came home the 2 gents were just coming back from lunch at the pub.

They looked happy and relaxed what a life away from the rat race it will be better when this credit crunch ends. Ha ha

Tonight when we went down the drain bank the hares were running along the track they must have come out of the fields because of the work going on with combines and balers I counted 6 on the track .

On the way back a muntjac deer came out of the long grass and wandered across the track and into the woodland and near the farm yard small rabbits as well as hares were running all over the place.