Chutney at last!

 Winterspice Beetroot done, with lime and ginger.

I cheated and bought some extra beetroot..I sowed ours in a patch that was too rich and we are getting a lot of leaf! Still, both ends taste good.

Next on the list is carrot and garlic. The last time I made it we only got to eat one jarful as the rest flew off the shelf as presents!! The feedback (pun not intended!!) was so good I will make another batch. 

I found the recipe on the downsizer.net forum recipe base (which I think anyone can access) and it is an adapted version of Sophie Grigson's recipe. As she says if I remember rightly it is the nearest she managed to the M&S carrot chutney..and it is!!

The weather has been miserable, we have more showers today..chilly in August!!

I am trying to work on time management to treat selling like working. It seems to be better for both of us, setting a block aside for cleaning (him! After all it is his bike stuff) and computer work. We managed to have a short walk in a weather window yesterday and he did a couple of laps around a local circuit while I got the chutney under way.

cats

This is Indeg, the cat who owns my daughter and family..named after one of their friends.

I've just been reading a thread on the Downsizer forum...a conversation between New Jersey, Sussex,Tasmania,Huntingdon and Mid-Wales, mainly,with occasional additions from Yorkshire and Scotland....

One subject was in passing,the naming of cats...

RIP Blacksmith

I heard today that a good friend died yesterday.

We had never met in real life, but he introduced me to the downsizer forum for sustainable living ....not a dry as dust place, more an online village with all the events, squabbles, friends, births, marriages...and deaths.

He chatted with me on facebook as The Pirate went through his course of radiotherapy and was a great help.  Within a month his chemotherapy started, so he must have known when we were talking.

Despite knowing that his condition was terminal lung cancer he was positive and encouraging.

A good craftsman, marvellous photographer and all round decent bloke.

You'll be missed, Dave Goddard.

You loved barbecues and fireworks, so what better day to go!!

pictures from the visit to the fibre retreat

skillshare weekend, Mullacott Farm, 10/11 September

After a delayed start, due to the allotment society AGM (I couldn't really miss that!), I went to Mullacott Farm near Ilfracombe in Devon...to meet a "bunch of internet wierdos" to quote one of them!!

Downsizer is a forum for a sustainable and ethical future...but it isn't dry and ultra serious....it is like an online village..with all the arguments, discussions, helping each other, romance....of a real live village!!

We meet mostly online, but we also meet for real as well. This weekend was a Skillshare, wood whittling and knife sharpening, chicken wrangling, bacon making, tatting, foraging, knitting, paper making, plenty of discussion and lots of homemade food !!
The Oily One came too and I was really glad to share the driving. It is only about 130 miles from here, and takes about two and threequarter hours.
We arrived in sunshine on Saturday afternoon. On Friday lunchtime they had a thunderstorm, and half an hour before we arrived one tent succumbed to the wind!!
The occupants decided to use the bunk barn on Saturday night!!
We pitched the tent, choosing the dryest available pitch...not knowing that that was where the other tent had just blown down!! The front guyropes were tied to a solid fencepost, the rear to the car roof bars. A bank sheltered one side and the car the end. So we didn't take off Saturday night, just flapped a bit!!

On the Saturday night there was a "batwalk" with a bat detector, whilst others had a Barn Dance.


On Sunday we went on a foraging walk, but didn't forage as it was rather wet!!
We found some real Devon mud!
and a tunnel!!
and the Oily One (in the red coat)
found an interesting wall
by Lower Slade reservoir
we passed a wind turbine on the way back.
and saw a Devon bank as we returned to Mullacott Farm
just in time for lunch!!