It is early July, early evening and it’s cold. The stove is lit. The weather systems all over the world appear to have gone wild, but as I sit here, sipping tea and typing, the reality of life is more to do with getting the harvest of blackcurrants into the freezer! I have returned from the kitchen with a cuppa and red-tinted fingers from all the handling of the currants as I weigh them into bags. Whatever the weather is like we have to adapt as best as possible and Blackcurrants don’t seem to mind any way! There is no…
Tag: chutney
Roses on the Veranda and the Apples have set!
The roses have come out on the veranda. I made a short video to show you some of the beauty… you can click on that below. The apples have all set and are developing well. There promises to be a magnificent crop this year, so all the recipes for apple wine, chutney,butter, cider and more will be perused and debated…will I make this or that or… The Willow is now in leaf, as are most of the trees, with the Ash being the last to leaf. The scent as I walk around the gardens from the blossom on the Hawthorn…
Permaculture Harvests in Ireland
Plums from the one of the Plum Trees here on the land. Plums are easy to grow in Ireland as they are related to the Blackthorn tree, the one that fruits Sloes. Rowan berries, collected from trees near my local town, Carrick. Foraging can be a very fruitful and worthwhile undertaking in the country, bringing in a bountiful harvest! Hips from the Rosa Rugosa growing at Bealtaine Cottage…these are brimming with Vitamin C and make a delicious syrup, as well as magnificent wine, which has the body of a good Sherry! Home-made wines are very easy to make…simply observing the…
Permaculture Cottage ~ Sustainable Living, Willow and Trees
All the ingredients to make Autumn Chutney are in the pot and heating up on the stove. The apples are from the trees here at Bealtaine. Onions were grown here as well. The stove is burning wood grown here also…which all adds to the sustainability of living…and living well. I posted the recipe for this last night…so you can easily find it on the previous day…just scroll down and click on the link to go back… Delicious and top quality as all the ingredients are sourced or grown by myself. Shop bought chutneys just come anywhere near this stuff taste-wise!…
An Early Morning Walk with Jack along Ballyfermoyle
Jack is my beautiful rescue dog…I usually introduce thus to strangers as a way of excusing his enthusiasm for life…jumping up to greet people! Jack loves walking, so we go out at least twice a day along the laneway where I live, here at Ballyfermoyle. I took these photos this morning for you all to see soem of what Jack and I see… Recipe for Autumn Chutney…easy and you get to choose the fruit! I used… 1.5kg apples, chopped up in small pieces 80g chopped dates 100g raisins 450g onions, fine chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 350g soft brown sugar…
Permaculture Cottage ~ The Pantry
Sweetcorn harvested over the weekend…this is the native American corn, called ‘Painted Mountain,’ and is very colourful! I will save some of the corn seeds for planting next year… Heaps and heaps of windfalls… planting apple trees is cheap and easy and all you do is wait for the windfall! Ha! Ha!…I love it. Simple, easy and so very permaculture! And more apples in the pantry…buckets of them…free food, good food and not a corporation in sight! Free-range eggs with deep orange yolks and pumpkins in the pantry today…it’s starting to fill up as the harvest comes in… Bountiful Blackcurrants…waiting…
Permaculture Cottage ~ Organic Apples, Grapes, Pumpkins and Sun Drenched Flowers.
Organic Apples growing at Bealtaine Permaculture Smallholding today. Chutneys, juice and freezing on the menu for these beauties! Organic Grapes in the tunnel this evening, continuing to ripen and swell. This year has seen the best harvest yet. I mulched and fertilized the vine with raw sheeps wool. Organic Pumpkins surrounded by oregano and tomatoes in the tunnel about an hour ago. More Apples on more trees. All organically grown, 6 year old trees, NEVER been sprayed! Here’s a rude salute to the chemical companies and a big ‘hurrah,’ for PERMACULTURE! The evening sun floods the flowers in the East…
Permaculture Cottage ~ Not enough food in Ireland…
Tea after Enniskillen and a shopping expedition for another camera. Recycled of course! A great book shop up there also and by the looks of the cars in the car park, most of the population of North Roscommon and Leitrim were shopping there too! What a relief! It rained yesterday and rained really heavily overnight. All the water butts are spilling over and the tunnel has had an early morning drink…6am! I love the way that the rainwater is held in jewel-like drops on the Ladys Mantle! A tiny Oak seedling being nurtured in the tunnel. This will be ready…
Permaculture Cottage ~ Knitting and Reading
The weather has forced me indoors a lot recently, encouraging a hive of activity that includes knitting and sorting cupboards and reading… I’ve just completed this scarf for someone who wanted me to knit for her in these colours and in natural wool. So hard to get a scarf knit in natural 100% wool these days apparently. So there it is, completed and ready for collection. I enjoyed the task so much, I decided to use all the leftover wool and knit one for myself… This is a great book I’m enjoying reading at present…picked up in a charity shop…
