Alternative Capers, Crabs and Nest Box.

As we no longer live in a country where we can pick wild Capers I thought it would be a good idea to collect some of the green

                                                    Nasturtium seeds and pickle them as an alternative, I have done these before and they make a very good mock caper and are used in the same way, good for making Tartar sauce or adding with almonds for fresh trout, there are only so many seeds that you can save for planting next year and Nasturtiums seed very readily. Besides being very pretty and prolific they make a good companion plant for all brassicas being a host plant for the dreaded Cabbage White butterfly who's caterpillars  can devastate a cabbage crop, they also have a nasty habit of turning up as added protein on the dinner plate hidden in the heads of Calabrese, Ugh!
                              The two and a half pounds of Crab Apples have now been made into jelly,

it's such a beautiful colour and set very well, I could have used more water and made them go a little further but I ended up with three jars so I'm happy, another thing that is so simple to make if you can get the Crab apples in the first place. I am looking forward to our trees cropping for us, maybe next year.

We have now come to the conclusion that the bread is better cooked in the range as that is a dry heat unlike the gas oven which is a wet heat, although this might not be the reason, as years ago when I was doing my cookery training Chef would always place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven, I wish I had asked why.
We are still waiting for Autumn to really arrive, up to a couple of days ago it was still warm and sunny with only one frost so far, the trees are still in full leaf and roses still blooming and only a couple of the hens have started their moult.

I thought this week I would make a wild bird nest box ready for next year, a friend has a beautiful one which I have long admired so I decided to have a go at doing something similar. I am pleased with how it has turned out,

I hope the Finches will also like it and use it to produce their young next spring, I will make another one but this time for the Blue Tits, the Robins will have an old tea pot if I find one in a charity shop, I had seen one on sale in a gardening catalogue at thirty euro! Crazy, but I suppose some people will buy them.
Talking about crazy, many people are complaining about the rise in food costs, food never has reflected the true cost of production, food is too cheap, it does not reflect the true price, conventional agriculture is supported by huge subsidies, paid for by the tax payer, yet here in Ireland every person produces 280kg of waste each year, 37% of this is food waste. In the UK they manage to produce 7.2 million tons of waste per year, for the average UK family this represents £640 per year of wasted food. Clearly if people can afford to waste food it is too cheap, not too expensive.