Raspberry with a kick!

The bees have been busy all over the raspberry flowers and now the raspberries are turning red.  We normally get 25 lb each summer.  The year before last I said, 'I am fed up of picking them and what shall I do with all these raspberries'?  But when they got a disease, I panicked and took it all back.  This year as well as jam I am going to do raspberry gin and raspberry schnapps.  I am going to do them for Christmas.  1 litre bottle from IKEA £2.25 and a 1 litre bottle of schnapps from Tecso is £8.00, which will be enough to make two bottles.  I have done half raspberries topped up with schnapps or you can use gin or vodka, prick the fruit to let booze in, or half raspberries, I did half and half.  Add sugar, I used caster sugar.  I read a recipe that said use same weight of sugar to raspberries, but I just pour it and guess.  I know the more you use the stronger the drink is and thicker and more syrupy it is, so is better, but its personal choice.  Place it in a dark place and turn it every week, in 6 months it is yum.

 Blackcurrants too!

Broad Bean and Pea Rissoto

We picked our first, Peas and Broad beans his week and for Sunday tea we had broad bean and pea rissoto, with pine nuts and choritzo.  Yum!

 Peas

Broad Beans

Podded and ready to cook

What a lovely tea, thank you Mr W x

Allotment

I blogged on the 24/03/15 about the allotment that we had and that I was 4th on the list for the local allotments, I promised I would keep you updated so the news is that we are now 1st on the list and have been offered a choice of two.  One is on a hill by the woods and doesn't get much light and I expect is a bit of a pond in the winter, the other is at the side of the allotments in full sun and comes with a shed!! Well what do you think??  So plot 12 in the sun it is!  Yay!  What about relaxing after work in the garden with a glass of wine and not having to go to the allotment to water, I hear you cry! yeah yeah well if I don't take it now they will put me to the bottom of the list and I could be waiting another 10 years! And then they might only offer me the pond by the woods and I will never get one.  So much thinking to do, exciting!  I would like it to be different from my last allotment, I haven't decided much more than that, I will leave the planning up to my dreams at night.  The site the allotments are on is so different to my last, it certainingly isn't tidy and the paths are uneven and the grass is not cut.  I may even join in and have a rambling allotment, some where to hide and sunbathe, maybe as it is close to home I will walk up with my glass of wine after work!

 Here is the allotment, our new plot 12, as you can see it doesn't look anything like our last one and it needs a lot of work, but we can do it, the last one was chest high with brambles and I had to get a tractor to flail it and even then I couldn't put a fork in it!

I'm thinking Victoria Plums and blueberries

Flowers, onions and potatoes

What do you think?  Do you have an allotment?  Do you have any advise, would love to hear it?  If you are unable to leave a comment email me at kraftywindsor@gmail.com

My old allotment

Our old scarecrow Gloria
Ummm!  We will need one of these, yay how exciting!
Can't wait to here your allotment advise!
Laters peeps x

Blue Crochet Blanket

I finished the blue crochet blanket I was doing on holiday, and how please am I!  I love it.  I have finished it off with a scalloped edge.  I had to run it through the wash as I got a few tea stains on it when I was crocheting in the beach hut.  I used those new unstoppable balls, that you put in the washing machine, the pink ones, they smell so lovely.  They smell like Tom the cat as I wash all the blankets with them that he sleeps on, which means, Tom thinks every blanket I have is his.

Pam's new friend!

On the 3rd March I blogged about Pam our chicken and that she was crowing at 4am!  Yes a chicken crowing like a cockeral!  We thought that it might be because she was lovely and promised Pam a friend in the warmer weather.  Well warmer weather is here so we popped to see Chicken Stu's farm and came home with a friend for Pam.  I chose her because I loved her dark tail feathers.  For the first few days she was terrified of Pam and hid under the bushes and didn't move.  But I knew they would be great friends and a few days late they were led next to each other sunbathing.  So our new chicken is called Gertie!  I thought that's it, no more 4am wake up calls as she isn't lonely anymore. And I was right, as it didn't start at 4am it was 4:45am!!!!! Pam - cocker doddle do! And Gertie joined in with buck buck buck buccccker! Noisy little cluckers!

 Gertie!  She is friendly and a lovely looking girl, we haven't had any eggs yet.  Come on Gertie

Pam, waiting for a wild strawberry.

Summer Garden

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow, with silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row row row and pretty maids all in a row!

I love this nursery rhyme and you can often hear me singing it whilst in the garden.  When I had the allotment, I had cockle shells and silver bells hanging from the shed window, made from old bakewell tart tins, ummm yum I could eat one now!    But I never had a row of pretty maids!

This is my garden a week ago.

Tonight we will have pea and broad beans risotto! Ha ha I might even post a picture of my tea!  

Fruit bushes, I have raspberries, black currants, apple, figs and blueberries.  This year I will try raspberry gin!  I will let you know how I get on and post a receipe!

The pink peonies have been a wonder show this year and they smell so lovely.  We have been lucky with the weather as if it rains heavy when the peonies come out they wont last long and the petals will drop, but this year they have lasted.