Thursday 6 August 2015

Harvesting

At the start of this week, I began to harvest and process more soft fruit. The final few blackcurrants are now in the freezer. A cereal bowl of the last blueberries have been eaten on top of our morning porridge.

One pound each of Victoria and Czar plums were open frozen on trays so they freeze individually before being bagged:
The ones above are Victoria.
These are Czar. As is the case at the start of each year, I initially forget things and these were frozen without being dipped in lemon juice but they seem fine.

Since those were done, another 3 x 1lb bags have been open frozen. Some are being eaten fresh and on top of our porridge. I reckon our little trained Victoria tree will give us a few more pounds - already she has delivered 7 1/2 lbs - the most to date!

We picked some wild plums at the end of our walk yesterday with E. Once washed and weighed, we ended up with 3.75 lbs each. Loads more to come methinks. They come in handy for jams and chutney:
The green ones will turn yellow in a couple of days inside the warm conservatory.

11 comments:

  1. Plums are a wonderful fruit!
    J x

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    1. We love them but only eat ours and wild ones, far better taste.

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  2. As you are my tomatillo guru! why is one plant producing black fruit and how do I know when they are ready and then what do I do with them!!
    Our plums are still weeks away from being ready but we are processing apricots before the wasps ruin the lot

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    1. There are two types of tomatillo, violet and green, tasting the same. The fruit will swell to fill their outer husks, although later in the season, less so. Sometimes they break out of their husks! You can leave them on the plant until the husks dry slightly but i prefer to harvest when they swell to fit. They are usually paler than dark green if growing green ones,or darker than speckled green for the violet.

      They never ripen all at once so pick individually if really necessary. I dehusk them in slightly soapy water as they are extremely sticky, often washing the inner tomatillo in my soapy hands. Do them all like this, rinse well, dry then store in slightly open bags in the bottom of the fridge for up to 3 weeks, checking every now and then.

      They are a bit of a faff but make really nice meal bases. Harvesting for us here is anywhere from mid to late August until the first frosts:)

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    2. Forgot to say, there is a nice recipe for chicken and tomatillo stew under my recipe tab. Also loads of recipes online - very big amongst the Americans I believe.

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  3. What a lovely lot of plums. We have a Victoria plum tree but it's only young so no fruit yet. The only wild plum I've seen nearby is on the side of a main and very busy road.....not an ideal spot because of traffic pollution and in any case, nowhere to park. Will have to keep looking, I'm sure there must be more elsewhere.

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    1. Ours is a few years old but tightly trained to an arch. This year has been its best ever. Some years we get none (depends how I prune it I guess! Keep looking for wild plums, we discovered this particular spot last year, but have numerous ones near us but like you say, some too close to roads. Elderberries will be coming soon:)

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  4. We had a wonderful Victoria plum tree in the garden of my final childhood home. My Dad used to pick the plums for K to eat. She has now bought a plum tree for the garden of her new home as she has such wonderful memories of her beloved Grandad and the plums they shared.Our old allotment neighbour used to share the plums from his tree with us, but he gave up his plot earlier this year as his sight had deteriorated so much that he could no longer manage it. He was a lovely old chap who had led a really interesting life and used to tell us all about it over a cuppa.

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    1. Wonderful memories all round! Hope K and A have some new memories to share in the future. Same about the allotment plum tree, are the new tenants willing to share?

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  5. Your plums harvest looks great. They are such a versatile fruit - can be used in both sweet and savoury recipes.

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