Clare College Gardens

As well as going round St John's, we also went round the gardens at Clare College, which we tend to do during most of our Cambridge visits! In my reckoning, they're the finest of the college gardens.

Clare College Gardens (© Ian 2011)

We've been, I think, three times this year, and this room has been planted differently each time. It started with hyacinths, changed to forget-me-nots, and is now a tropical melange, with some striking bananas in the centre.

The beds elsewhere have also changed each time; testament to the gardening team's hard work! Their herbaceous perennials are always beautifully supported, and growing well, which I'm always envious of.

Dahlias in the river-side bed, Clare College Gardens (© Ian 2011)

Asters, Clare College Garden (© Ian 2011)

Dahlia (identification welcomed!), Clare College Gardens (© Ian 2011)

Quincentenary

We spent the weekend in Cambridge, to visit friends, and our old college, St John's. The college was founded in 1511, and in celebration of its centenary has held a number of events, including a 'Quincentenary Week' this past week. There were several exhibitions, which we went round, as well as dinners, talks, and tours earlier in the week.

The Old Library, St John's College, Cambridge (© Ian 2011)

The old library was built in the 1620's, and forms a range of Third Court. It was added to in 1990, with the New  Library. The Old Library is home to the college archives, and a huge collection of old texts: on display at the moment are documents relating to the foundation of the College.

Signature of Lady Margaret Beaufort, My Lady the King's Mother (mother of Henry VII, grandmother of Henry VIII, and foundress of the college), on instructions to her executor (St John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester) (photo © Ian 2011)

The Senior Combination Room (North Range of Second Court) (photo © Ian 2011)

The Hall, set for dinner (photo © Ian 2011)

Compost Heap Jelly & Spiced Berry Cordial

Yesterday, we boiled up a bag of frozen citrus fruit hulls and peelings, and apple cores and peelings, which I've been storing as they were 'created' for several months. This makes this jelly extremely frugal, as it uses the left-overs that would otherwise go straight on the compost heap, and the only paid-for ingredient is sugar.

Once the pulp was squeezed (yes, a cardinal sin in purist jelly making, as it won't be perfectly clear: I prefer to have ten jars of 'murky' jam, than five of clear jelly!), we added 1lb of granulated sugar to every pint of juice, and boiled it to setting point. Granulated, as the fruit is about as pectin- and acid-packed as it comes (citrus fruit and apple cores!). The result is a fruity and marmalade-like jelly, with a faint floral hint (those mischievous elderflowers that came with the oranges and lemons from the cordial), and is delicious. Thank you, River Cottage Bites.

The other thing we started yesterday was the spiced berry cordial. Having left the fruit mush to break down, I squeezed every drop of juice possible out, and added 500g of sugar for every 1kg of fruit we started with (in this case, 3kg), making 3l of liquid. We added two cinnamon sticks, 20 cloves, and 2 tsp of each of ground ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. This is brought to the boil, and simmered for five minutes. I then bottled this, hot, into warmed screw-top bottles: with the heat, and the sugar, I think it should keep just fine until Christmas.

The East Parterre at Witley Court, with box edging (© Ian (2011))

In my break for lunch, I took about three dozen cuttings of the heritage box we bought at Witley Court. It's a bit late in the season, but there you go.

First Stages

A fairly productive weekend, mostly spent in the kitchen, preparing the first stages of several preserving recipes!

Yesterday we mixed up the ingredients for a 6lb batch of mincemeat, using the new apple crop. It's really well in advance—we made the mincemeat for this Christmas back on New Year's Eve, so the batch from this weekend will only be used Christmas 2012. As before, it's the Gary Rhodes/Delia Smith recipe, modified to go in the slow cooker for six hours (rather than a low oven for several). That happened today, after the ingredients had sat overnight, and the result is magnificent. It's filled the kitchen with Christmas spiciness whenever we stirred it. Brandy (blackberry) will be stirred in tomorrow, when it's jarred.

In a break between showers, we nipped out to planted the over-wintering alliums. About 45 'Germidour' garlic, a dozen elephant garlic, and 110-odd Summer Gold overwintering onions. Before planting them, I dug in a few trugs of compost. Alongside, we've sown a few rows of White Lisbon overwinter spring onions, in the hope of an earlier crop of scallions.

It was dry first thing today, so we quickly gathered a kilo of elderberries, to combine with blackberries, damsons, and bilberries from the freezer to make a spiced berry cordial. It's about 50% elderberries, 25% blackberries, 20% damsons, and 5% bilberries, to a total of 3kg. To make the cordial, we've made up to 4.5l with hot water, and boiled it down to 3l (that is, reduced by a third). I'm leaving it overnight, and in the morning, I'll stir in some pectolase (to break down the fruit and release the juices). Once squeezed through muslin, the juice can be sweetened and spiced, and then bottled.

We also cooked up a big bag of citrus fruit hulls, and apple peelings (tasty sounding, no?): these have been collected over several months and frozen, and include the slices of orange and lemon that went into the elderflower cordial (and a few elderflowers). Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I'll squeeze this tomorrow as well, and then make it into jelly.

Lastly—and lately—I strained the hedgerow wine that I started a week ago. The pulp (sloe, elderberry, blackberry), in a gallon of water, has been fermenting since Monday, with the aid of pectolase and yeast nutrient, and has now been squeezed onto 1.3kg of sugar in a demi-john. Fermentation, predictably, has picked up a notch.

More Green Manure

Just a short, and fairly mundane note: I dug over the space where the second-cropping potatoes had been (until earlier this week), and the last few meters of where the main-crop potatoes where, and have sown both with the last of the green manure seed.

The second-croppers came out, because they were starting to look sad, many of the Vivaldi had flowered, and most of the Orla had failed to come up. On digging over, it transpires that the Orla had decided to grow two new tubers (at the inevitable expense of the seed tuber disappearing), without the benefit of foliage. From all forty seeds, we probably only lifted about 2kg of tubers. Not exactly a success: we almost certainly won't trouble ourselves with second-croppers again. However, the Vivaldi showed no sign of scab, so they might be a contender for first-earlies next year, depending on taste.

Only nine of the Frostie spring cabbages we sowed about a month ago are doing well, so I've also sown ten more. The turnips from the same date have been badly attacked by mice and slugs, which is disappointing; it's now too late to sow more.

The elephant garlic and over-wintering onions have arrived, so we'll plant them at the weekend: we're still waiting for the 'normal' garlic.

Chutney, Jam, and Wine

Having collected the apples on Thursday, we've got on with making this year's chutney. We enjoyed the Grandma's Hot Apple Chutney we tried last year, so we did a double batch of that (12 jars). Instead of the basic apple chutney, we made a batch of the National Trust's Windfall Chutney (not with windfalls, but never mind), which was another 8 jars. A statutory batch (5 and a half jars) of mango chutney (another 850g tin of kesar mango puree!) followed; I think the spice blend worked better. We then tried a spiced elderberry chutney (cooked and sieved berries), which is extremely purple-red (5 jars). The Windfall Chutney has a couple of tablespoons of turmeric in, so that's rather yellow, making this years jars quite colourful: the Grandma's Hot is quite molasses-y, the Windfall is yellow, the mango orange, and the elderberry strongly anthocyanin!

We'll do a round of mincemeat next weekend (it requires an overnight steep of the ingredients), which will use more apples—the rest will be eaten as they are, or made into puree for cooking or eating.

One of our neighbours was given a large quantity of greengages, which were surplus to her requirements, so she gave us a few kilos. As a result, we've tried a new recipe, for greengage and almond jam. The greengages defrosted brown (they went in green), but it doesn't appear to have mattered. They also didn't require stoning before cooking, contrary to some instructions—though that did mean Liz had to keep vigilant watch for stones while to cooked, fishing them out as they floated. It's very tasty, and reminiscent of a marvellous gooseberry jam we made some years ago. Not too sweet, with a good 'plum' flavour.

To round off the preserving weekend, I started a batch of Hedgerow Port: elderberry, sloe, and blackberry wine. Nothing unusual: 800g blackberries, 300g sloes, and 400g elderberries, crushed, with 4.5l of boiling water poured over them. I added some pectolase once it'd cooled a bit, and yeast will go in tomorrow. The must'll ferment for four-five days, and then I'll strain it onto sugar in a demi-john.

The elderflower and elder rosé wines look like they've slowed considerably, so fermentation may be nearly complete. I'll probably leave them for another few weeks, then rack them.

Apple Harvest

It's a bit earlier than last year, but we picked the apples from the hillside. I think it comes to about eight big shopping bags full, which should be plenty for the recipes we've got planned. Making chutney is planned for the weekend; we might do some jam at the same time. It's that time of the year when there's loads of freezing, preserving, and bottling!

Rochdale Canal

We've had a rather busy weekend to finish our week off. Yesterday was spent getting the bacon and hams into brine, finishing the Great Potato Wash of 2011, mowing the lawn (vastly overdue, and hard work), and then making sausages.

It's the first time we've tried making sausages, and was prompted by the new half-pig order. We had loads of sausages with the last pig, but they were all basic pork & herb. As well as wanting a variety, we also thought it would be fun to try. It was.

Mincing the pork was rather tedious (dicing 7kg of pork, and then feeding it through a blade-and-plate grinder took an age), but making the sausages was actually really easy. We took 1.5kg of minced pork, added oatmeal (rusk substitute), water, salt and pepper, and then one of four 'flavourings'. One batch of apple; one of juniper & apple; one of leek; one of Welsh Dragon (leek and chilli). Once mixed (by hand: messy work!), I fed mix into the stuffer, while Liz guided the hog casings. Apparently, the trick is keeping a consistent size, and avoiding tearing the skins or introducing air—but we didn't have any problems.

We tried a bit of each mix before stuffing, and they all tasted good, and they looked very convincingly sausage-y once made.

We made up a big bucket of brine on Friday night, and set it to chill overnight, before adding the pork belly (about 3kg) and seven shoulder/leg joints for ham. I'd boned and skinned the belly on Friday, so it was just a question of dropping the meat into the brine on Saturday morning.

That took us quite late into Saturday night, but waiting for us in the morning was the newly salted bacon, which only needed 24 hours to pickle. It was from a small chunk I'd put to one side, and I think its size meant it was saltier than the rest (and a little too salty, in fact), but it tasted great.

The rest of Sunday was then filled with a trip out on a canal boat up the Rochdale canal, to celebrate Liz's sister's birthday.

Lock on the Rochdale Canal (© Ian (2011)).

We were very amply fed, and had a really good day. Neither of us have worked locks before, although I consider them an engineering miracle, so that was fascinating. And I only bumped the bank a few times.

Pig

A couple of slightly mundane days: yesterday spent painting window-frames (inside), washing potatoes, and sorting onions. This was enlivened by the arrival of our half-pig, which weighed in at a delightful 31kg. The roasting joints are in the freezer; the ham joints and belly (for bacon) are ready to cure; the odds and ends are ready to make into sausage; and the kidney was a very tasty dinner.

To celebrate, here's a photo of this week's flower arrangements!

Vases of flowers from the garden (© Ian (2011)).