Its a good start to the week when you get a parcel in the mail! My best mate sent us a Christmas box of bits and pieces. Looking forward to reading this gardening book. She also sent me a house cleaning book with a post it note on it saying she never used her copy. Made me laugh!
First things first, I got into the plums and fished out all the pips then mooleyed what was left. I now have a nice lot of pulp to do with what I will.
I put three trays in the dehydrator for leather and froze the rest.
Jeff picked 2 more buckets of plums when he got home from work. Suppose I will have to work on those tomorrow!
I just went and checked… they look done. A bit tart because I added no sugar but I like the flavour and don’t mind if its a bit bitey.
This, however was my super success of the day. I had dried some raspberry pulp (mostly deseeded) – it was partly chewy and partly crispy.
I broke it up and added it to some chocolate
Apart from in the future me having to learn how to melt chocolate properly, this turned out totally great! Again the raspberry was unsweetened so the leather is a bit tart, but I love that mixed in with the sweetness of the chocolate.
Tomorrow I will be making a LOT more raspberry leather and stocking up on cooking chocolate from the supermarket!
I picked up 3kg of cherries yesterday from a farm just down the road from us. Jeff especially loves cherries and I was aiming for a few extra wife-points for having them chilled in the fridge for when he woke up from sleeping off his nightshift.
I cooked a kilo and started the process for making ice cream… cherry flavoured ice cream is divine!
Anyway, out to the garden… moving sprinklers around all day. Parts of the ground are cracking!
Time to trim that basil back again!!
Its actually slow drying in the netting so I thought I would hang this lot. I am sure I will be making more pesto, but Jeff ate all my cashews!!
I picked up these nifty clip hanger things in Japan with no idea what I needed them for but couldn’t resist having them. Found a use for them today.
Now the waiting begins.
Picked my first capsicum today! I wanted to wait until they went red but this one is showing some heat distress so I thought I should pick it and use it before it went funny. Lots more lovely tomatoes too.
I spent a couple of hours on the back veranda cleaning the dirt off the garlic and trimming them up. Now I can take them and hang them inside somewhere to dry properly.
Why not a garlic selfie?
And might as well get the cat involved while I am at it.
Pip not really into it…
Anyway, hope your Monday started just as well as mine did!
Cheers!
What does mooleyed mean?
Its my made up word… the kitchen item is a Moulinex and it basically grinds/squashes the pulp through a sieve thingy – gets rid of the skin and some seeds. Its all too hard to describe what I am doing each time so I dubbed it ‘mooleying’ 🙂 (I could have done better with the spelling, I admit)
I think your herb drying hanging basket is great! I’m going to try to find something like that. I like to dry rose petals, oregano and thyme. The rose petals for potpourri not for eating. As always, I so much enjoy your pictures. It’s currently rainy and 37 in Oregon. A little taste of summer is just what I needed!
Hi Julie! Sounds like an indoor day in Oregon!! 🙂
I googled ‘herb net dryer’ and found options on ebay and amazon. I regret only grabbing one of these when I was in Japan (twas bit of a bargain at $3!!) 🙂
I haven’t tried drying any of my thyme yet… I should since its a gorgeous herb to use!
Keep warm!!