Now that it's September some of my interest groups have begun again and my diary is filling up. I've also been busy in the house where I've been doing a bit of a makeover in one of the bedrooms with a change in the soft furnishings and bed linen. I've bought bedding, curtains, blinds for this bedroom.
Meanwhile, my husband has been slowly lifting potatoes and other root vegetables ready to store them. This is a slow process because of the changeable weather and a back and hip problem which has recently got worse. So far he's been digging up the potatoes a row or two at a time. We've got lots of chilis, F1 Cheyenne and De Cayenne this year which I'm going to freeze.
These white onions, Globo, grown from seed, have been spread out to dry before they're stored in hanging bunches.
Our three-year old pear tree has produced about twenty pears. We have had strong winds and the heavy pears are in danger of falling before they ripen. We've had more wet and windy days than sunny ones so the ripening process is slow going. I've bottled some plum tomatoes San Marzano and I'm observing these Tigerella (Mr. Stripey) with interest as I thought it would be a different variety to try this year. My husband tends to grow the same tried and tested varieties of vegetables every year and, of course, is always planning ahead and collecting or buying seeds.
When we were down in Berkshire we went to a big Italian Continental store and bought a few more packets of seeds. This old, established family-owned specialist store is one of the biggest in the area and is also a wholesale market for the local shops and restaurants. We've been going to it ever since we were married when Italian products were not so easily obtained in regular stores and my husband used to get his boxes of grapes there to make his wine.
Since we were there last the store has expanded. There's a new fresco painting on the ceiling of the entrance and my recent banners have shown details of it.
It now seems like a while ago since we were eating al fresco on a sunny day in our daughter's garden with a lunch of olive bread, black olives, salami and prosciutto, and mozzarella from the Italian store and sipping my husband's home made rose wine. We also had a selection of Derbyshire cheeses from our day out in Bakewell when our daughter came to stay and we all bought some cheese from the Monday Market. There was Sage Derby and others with basil pesto or chili peppers.
On the other hand the season has moved on and we can start harvesting more of our produce and use in one pot meals in these chillier days.
