Preserving things

We have many many apples so I have tried pasturising some juice. I haven't done very much in case it doesn't work out, if it does we will do more next year. For some reason it tastes more sour than the same juice not pasturised, I will have to add a little sugar next time.

This is our juicer, it is good because you can put whole apples in it, however it makes quite a mess and makes very foamy juice that has to be allowed to settle then the juice poured out from under the foam to get the lovely clear juice.

I also made Rose-hip and Apple Jelly with rose-hips we picked up in the mountains. It didn't use that many apples as we only had enough rose-hips for one jar.

Not apple related I made some mango chutney as I am on a never ending mission to find the right recipe. It needs to mature a bit before we find out, but it is looking better than previous versions (they all come out looking too much like mango and not as clear and shiny looking as 'real' mango chutney. This lot was made with very ripe mangos which I think could be the difference. I should have boiled the fruit a bit more before adding the sugar and I think more sugar would give a better texture possibly. However I expect it to taste good.

Harvest - apples and mushrooms

There are a number of apple trees which were there when we arrived and some new ones we planted since. The new ones are not fruiting yet as we bought 1 year old sticks and it will take them a while to grow to a decent size. Two of the existing ones cropped well two years ago but not last year. This year they both have a huge crop, one lot isn't quite ripe yet, but the other are delicious.

We have eat a lot, dried quite a lot, juiced some and sliced and frozen some and yet it has hardly made a dent in the number on the tree.

A tiny number of the crop with a box of dried apple behind

Juicer

This year has also been great for mushrooms. This is the 1st Cepe Doug has found (he is the official mushroom picker as he has the patience to identify them). The locals are all obsessed with Cepe (Boletus Edulis, Penny Bun, Porcini) and can be found roaming the woodlands and fields at weekends hunting for them. There are loads of other Boletus, some of which are DEADLY, many that don't taste great and a few others that are pretty good to eat.

We had this one in risotto which was delicious.