I was so pleased with myself the other day. I shut the office door, grabbed my camera and headed off to the coast. I couldn’t resist taking some pics of the amazing views we have not far from where we live. I still have to pinch myself .. I love this place.
Oaia Island West Coast
Maori Bay, gannet rock
Back at home, the veg garden is looking pretty as a picture too, something to do with the gorgeous array of flowers and TLC in the form of seaweed brew and daily watering.
The zucchini at last is pumping out veg daily, the corn has grown a foot in a week (bet I didn’t tell you that I had planted any) cucumbers are in abundance and there is a variety of spuds which taste divine. The beans are past their best, so I’ll poke some seedlings in the dirt for round two. I hauled out a couple more tomato plants in disgust thanks to fungal nasties, but I nailed the woolly aphid in the apple tree – woohoo and I’m gloating!
We picked a load of unripe fruit over the weekend, think plums and peaches which are now ripening indoors. I would have preferred to leave them on the trees, but the wildlife were having a ball. I think every bird in the valley had been enjoying daily visits to our orchard.
My father-in-law Bill is back in front of the stove again making plum chutneys and more damson jam. Did I mention he makes the best panna cotta?
Not to be outdone yours truly located a rather tasty plum sauce recipe from the internet, but it wasn’t until the end of cooking time, when I tried the sauce that I realised in horror that the recipe was devoid of sugar! The fact that half the recipe contained plums in varying degrees of ripeness probably added to the fact that it tasted much like plum vinegar! To top it off, I broke the mouli and splashed sauce all over the place. Why I never used my Dad’s tried and true plum sauce recipe I will never know! Did I add sugar? Of course I did.
Sunday reading …