So far I have......

[Millymollymandy]

- Processed tons of hard skinned tomatoes into the equivalent of tinned tomatoes

- Made tomato chilli chutney (with bought toms!)

- Made cucumber pickle

- Frozen tons of blackberries, made blackberry juice (frozen in small quantities), going to make bramble jelly today

- Made two courgette cakes

- Made two batches of (double quantity) courgette, basil and parmesan soup for the freezer

... and shortly to make a lot of jams and chutneys from various types of plums!

(And still pottering about redecorating my bedroom, have at least got to filling the holes in the plaster now!! Expect to finish about October! )

What have you done?

[Shirley]

What time did you get up!!!! I'm impressed.

So far this morning I've drank a cup of tea and switched on the computer!

[Millymollymandy]

What time did you get up!!!! I'm impressed.

Oh you know, just call me Nigella.

I mean so far this summer!

[Shirley]

ROFL! Phew!!!! I thought you were superwoman or something

[hedgewizard]

Er, marrow and ginger jam, bramble jelly, gentlemen's relish (traditionally salted cucumber-based thing, v. bad for you), dried and frozen carrots, frozen lots of peas, but mainly eaten things straight from ground. Paperwork, the house, and preparing more areas of garden have taken the rest of my time! Roll on mushroom time though... early starts, big walks, secret woodland places... oh yeah, and mushrooms.

[Millymollymandy]

Gentleman's relish - cucumbers??? I thought it was based on anchovies!!!

Tell me more cos I have many, many cucumbers!

[Millymollymandy]

ROFL! Phew!!!! I thought you were superwoman or something

Just realised, if I was Stonehead I would have done all that by 8am!!

[hedgewizard]

I'll have to ask Witchypoo 'cos the fridge is packed with the damned things, probably a dozen in there. And I have no more jam jars! The horror!

[Millymollymandy]

OMG no jamjars May have to go under 101 worst nightmares!

[ina]

Considering I was determined not to make ANY jam this year, I've not done too badly... Rhubarb and fig jam, 3-fruit jam, red currant, and raspberry; bottled rhubarb and red currants, froze all sorts of berries (almost 5kg of black currants, most of which I'll have to turn into yet more jam soon), froze some courgettes (for soup) and yellow French beans. Sounds a lot, but it's all only small quantities (apart from the black currants!), because mine is only a single household. Need to freeze chives soon, before they go over - I've got loads now, and they are really good to use in winter straight from the freezer.

[hedgewizard]

Panic over, traded 6 eggs for 12 jam jars. I'll speak to Witchypoo tomorrow and post the recipe in the evening, while I'm salting the cukes.

[Shirley]

got hundreds of jam jars here... IF you are in the north east of scotland just stop me and have 10.

Ina... the jam you brought over for us was delicious!

[maggie144]

i have made 3 batches of marrow and ginger jam, 2 sponge cakes, cleaned my kitchen.

Milked the goats, collected the eggs and cleaned out all my rabbits which consists of 20 hutches at the moment and inbetween i am hand rearing 3 12 day old rabbits which have been rejected by their mother this entails 3 hour feeds day and night

also walked my dog cindy, and started writing a new story (i'm also a writer) i also home educate both my children and look after my husband who is wheelchair bound

thats a usual day

maggie

[hedgewizard]

OK here's the cuke relish recipe;

6lb cukes, peeled and seeded
2lb onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1/2 cup salt
2 cups vinegar
4tbsp cornflour
4 cups white sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tbsp tumeric
1 tbsp celery seed

Grind or chop cukes, onion and peppers, cover with salt and leave for four or five hours. Drain. Mix remaining ingredients (cornflour blended with vinegar) and heat . Add cuke mixture, cook until clear, pour into sealer jars or hot jamjars. Good for hamburgers and hot dogs, bad for blood pressure! Actually this is nice in a salad sandwich, and oddly enough goes particularly well with... cucumber!

[Millymollymandy]

No sugar? That's something like my cucumber relish but mine has sugar in it - and no cornflour. I posted it recently for someone else. My husband likes that one but I like cuc pickle - more tangy.

Today I am making elderberry and apple jelly. Not sure if I like the smell from the pan now I have stewed the berries and apple together. Hmmmm. Well we'll see!

Now what do I do with the rest of the elderberries - I have about another 2.5kg still on stalks in the fridge!