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| This weeks flowers. |
How long does a fresh Courgette last? In my experience by the end of seven days Courgettes will be soft and flaccid.
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| Now fourteen weeks old. |
Last weekend we were given this courgette by a friend who asked me to include it in one of my posts. So, the story. This Courgette was purchased by my friend in the middle of April, it was left on the sideboard in a warm kitchen and rather forgotten about, which is why it wasn't eaten. A couple of weeks ago my friend was having a good clear out, discovered said Courgette and was amazed to find it looked the same as the day she had bought it. The following weekend she passed it on to me to include in the blog. I guess the question is, what the hell has this vegetable been treated with for it to still appear fresh after fourteen weeks? I have weighed it, 5.2 oz which is about the right weight for it's size. I know I would not want to eat it either now or when it was first bought, for something like a courgette to remain looking fresh for so long has to mean it's been treated with something nasty or even irradiated. I think I will stick to our veg, fresh, straight from the garden and in season.
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| Redcurrants. |
At last most of the soft fruit has now been picked and processed,
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| The most boring job in the world, topping and tailing Gooseberries. |
most of the Gooseberries were bottled,
there's still a couple of pounds of gooseberries to come, but there will only be the odd picking of raspberries and the same with the strawberries, and a few more Loganberries,
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| Final picking of redcurrants, around 17lb from three bushes. |
but we are not talking about Blackcurrants.
I have made a few pots of jam and nine bottles of Ribina the rest will have to stay on the bushes.( yes, I know that's not how you spell Ribena) Next week the peaches should ready and then all that remains are the Victoria plums, provided that the wasps or birds don't get them first.
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| A handful is all the birds left. |
We should have had a reasonable crop of cherries, unfortunately we didn't get round to netting the trees and the wild birds had most of them, leaving us just a handful. Never mind, it has been a bumper harvest on the soft fruit.
I made redcurrant jelly to go with lamb , pork, and poultry, to half of the redcurrant jelly I added finely chopped mint for the rare occasions that we have lamb, it tasted lovely, giving it a whole new dimension.
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| And then there was one. |
The baby swallows all fledged and once again the cats are allowed out.
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| Final farewell. |
It was so nice to be able to follow the chick's progress and to see them all fly safely away.
The cottage outside painting is almost finished, just the two end to do which have very high gables, Simon will have to have clamber up a ladder to do the those.
We are both very pleased with it, we knew it needed doing we just didn't realise how much.
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| Kiftsgate mingling with the Albertine. |
Our thug rose 'Kiftsgate' is now flowering, it has grown so much that the arch that it was clambering over has partially collapsed, next job on the agenda is making a solid arch out of 3X3 timber, not even Kiftsgate will collapse that.
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| A miniature arrangement, just three inches tall. |
It makes you wonder how long fruit and vegetables are stored before they even hit the supermarkets, doesn't it? How lovely to see each swallow fledge and know that they got off in to the big wide world safe and sound. The cottage looks lovely, all bright and fresh. You only realise how desperately it needed doing once it's done, it was the same with our living room which we've recently given a lick of paint.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of fruit is kept for months in cold storage, we bought Satsuma oranges one Xmas, forgot about them, they looked fine at Easter, have never bought them since. The next decorating is the family bathroom although we never use it, it still looks shabby.
DeleteThe need to raise awareness about the difference between non-organic and organic foods has never been greater !
ReplyDeleteA lot of people today are suffering because of their ignorance in buying cheap foods grown in chemicals, rather than buying quality products that do not cause long term illnesses.
I agree with you H.V however for most people cheap food is more important than good food, if all food was sold at the price that it actually costs, including cost to the environment and the health services, Organic food would be cheaper than so called conventional food.
ReplyDeleteI echo what others have said: the supermarkets seem to specialise in doing harmful things to our food, in the name of "shelf-life" and cosmetic attractiveness. All the more reason to #GYO. Your freshly-painted cottage looks lovely now!
ReplyDeleteKnowing as much as I do about supermarket practises if I had to buy my food from them I would starve.
ReplyDeleteWe have three peaks on our roof as well and they are too high to paint without someone getting up on a ladder and walking on the roof. We did everything we could reach with the ladders and so our house is in two halves. I keep looking at likely candidates to go up there as it wont be any of us (we'd roll off).
ReplyDeleteBeautiful arrangements and so jealous of your harvest and the time to do it all.
All we need now is a good day without rain and not too hot then the painting will get finished. It has been a bumper harvest for soft fruit this year but a bad one for our tomatoes and cucumbers, still you cant have every thing. I live to arrange flowers, it's one of my hobbies.
ReplyDeleteThat courgette story is horrific. But as you and the other comments say, an all to common story. Jason and I had to buy a cheap loaf in Hong Kong where it was opened and forgotten in a cupboard. We came back from holiday two weeks later to find it in the same condition, not even stale (judging from the texture...I didn´t eat it!) Lauren x
ReplyDelete