Apple cheese

 After a foray into town and Prestwick..just two hours to do four things, plus a cuppa and wander round the garden centre sale corner (nothing worth having)...which would have taken me a very long day by buses....

Back home to get the apple cheese done.

Some apple butter recipes don't add sugar...some do, 1 apple pulp to ¾ sugar by weight.  I use 1:1 as I want this to keep..I have just opened a two years old jar, and the contents are fine. Apple cheese is basically Apple butter cooked down further to get a more solid preserve that you slice more than spread.

Ideally you would put it in jars that have no shoulder so that you may empty the whole jar onto a plate..so easy to slice...and eat with a good strong cheese...or you can take it a little further like Membrillo and then spread it in a lightly oiled flapjack tray...then cut it into squares...

And while I was doing that, two machines were also busy for me, making bread and yoghurt!

The washing up and the floor can wait till tomorrow...

Duolingo French lessons and bedtime for me now!

Getting back to normal.. slowly..

 The antibiotics have really knocked me back this time...but at least hopefully they have done their job.

Sorting paperwork probably hasn't helped...it's that empty feeling...should be Pirate sitting in the other chair...

Up late....nap before lunch....but then I did start to regain energy.

I went to our usual foraging place, a field hedge by Greenan Castle ...with a good view of Arran.

Elderberries to go with the brambles and spices to make a winter cordial.

Foraging starts!!

 After dropping the car down the road to the local garage....and having morning coffee....foraging was the order if the day.

A leisurely walk down the big hedge in the field 

Normally you can see Arran....

The hedgerow looks promising.

They aren't ready yet...and there is only one sort of pear and practically no plums this year....the wrong weather at blossom time, cold and wet, must have done a combination of damaging the blossoms and stopping the insects from flying.

In the other big hedge I found small apples...like crabapples but bigger...and small cooking apples, which I thinned out a bit, taking the bigger ones and the windfalls. Also haws, rowan berries and brambles.

I collected the car after lunch. Tyres ok for another month but keep an eye on the safety wear markers. One bit of the front suspension at one corner had gone...the potholes are playing merry hell with everyone's cars, however carefully you drive...

And there was a knocking noise....so back to see Davey.... possibly the apprentice could have tightened the wheel nuts a bit more...so everything was checked for play...and the nuts done with a proper torque wrench, not just the setting on the air driven tool...

Now it doesn't sound like "Three wheels on my wagon" is imminent!!

There is a wee bit of play in the steering rack...but nothing serious...we'll keep an eye on that too. All in all, not bad for a 20 year old car!!

Arrived home to a fleabay sale....hooray!! I probably should list a few more things...one every four weeks is not enough...but at the moment with all retail sales struggling...and with bikes, Wiggle et al ( now owned by the owner of Sports Direct.....) are selling things at knockdown prices....

People are expecting me to sell quality goods at knockdown prices.

I don't play that game...I will be patient....

Foraging begins!

rosa rugosa hips

Grown,I think, from discarded apple cores or pips dropped by birds, there are a few apple trees, plus crabapple trees on the stretch of land that was beach, but defences were built up by anchoring old Christmas trees...sand accumulated, marram grass planted then all the other vegetation took over...

Arran over there

Heads of Ayr

Knapweed..full of bees

Small convolvulus 

Result!! Our usual tree had hardly any fruit on it.. probably the weather prevented pollination, one way or another. There were hardly any sloes too.

And looking back up from the car to the place I picked the brambles..the lump on the right is a castle.

The fruit there gets a nice amount of sun but is also sheltered from the hardest weather...at home the blackberries are still small and green....400'+ above sea level and ten miles in makes a big difference.

 

Getting out

 I spent most of today sorting and tidying...doing an hour at a time then having a break..worn out clothes getting the heave ho...his and mine...and setting aside those unneeded..his and mine! 

There are some things that I haven't looked at yet.... because I need to reduce my "spare tyre" before trying them on.....

An old coffee/child's play / work table has gone on farcebook marketplace locally..that gets collected tomorrow.  I can't remember where we got it from...but Pirate would never refuse an offer..even if we had no need or space for something!! At least now it has found someone who needs it.

All that done so time for a walk...round Hannahston, with a diversion to see how the future foraging may be.... An hour well spent.

Only one variety of wild pears has survived...again...and no plums...but the cooking apple looks promising as well as all the other apples.



First garlic lifting..the tops haven't dried, but this won't matter for these...they will be used quick enough!

Freezing the last of the gooseberries...I was glad to see that although I picked them early, they have carried on ripening..and where they are dark red they are delicious! Two boxes with 1½ lb each ( a total of 1360 g for those in metric) ..add the 2¼ lb in the jam, and a couple of handfuls om top of that...well over 5lb in total..not bad atall.

Apple juice

 Cheers! 

Not alcoholic...but delicious!