Larder love

We have always looked with longing at those old fashioned walk in larders you see in old houses (usually on the television).  Our house is quite old, possibly 150 years old, but it didn't have a larder.  Being the types who love preserving and home made food, we were starting to overwhelm our boring modern kitchen cupboards.  Then we had an idea of converting what was a dead wall space in a small room off the kitchen that housed the washing machine.  The space is always slightly cool and dark, and is away from the steamy confines of the kitchen.  So after a lot of sanding and painting, and making of shelves by Mr C, we finally started filling the shelves at the weekend and voila, we have a very old fashioned looking larder taking shape!

So together with the store cupboard items, our home made preserves, and our lovely 1930s glass light shade, we added some of our cornishware, and yesterday I added the Christmas pudding I've just made onto the top shelf.  Bliss!

The trees are starting to glow

Autumn is starting properly now, the leaves on the trees are starting to turn all kinds of colours and dropping to the ground with the conkers and acorns.  On a beautiful autumn day like today the leaves look like they are glowing against the blue sky.

 

I don't think any photographs can do this time of year justice, let alone my quick snaps but I can't stop taking pictures when the light is this beautiful.  Autumn feels like nature's last hurrah, a burst of brilliance and beauty before the majority of trees and plants die down for winter.

 

I love walking through the leaves in Autumn, and am often the only person in the park picking up the conkers as the children walk past wondering what on earth I am doing.

I have a small collection of conkers on my desk at work - they remind me of things that make me very happy, being on a walk on an autumn day in the fresh air, being in our garden and listening to the birds chattering in the trees.

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Emily Dickinson

All is safely gathered in...

This weekend was our Harvest Festival, the church was beautifully festooned with flowers, tins and packets of food.  We decided to contribute by bringing some of our own harvest - vegetables, flowers and home made jam - as a more traditional display:

Harvest is from the Old English word hærfest, meaning "autumn" and traditionally celebrates the successful gathering in of all the crops from the farms.  People would celebrate with a meal called a harvest supper with feasting and dancing.   The modern British tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall.  We did both of these, with a harvest hop on the Saturday (with much terrible dancing) and the festival on the sunday.

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.

Happy Michaelmas!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy Michaelmas day and to show some photos of the garden on this beautiful autumn day.

Japanese Anemone

If you look closely, there are lots of spiders!

Fuchsia

 

 

Michaelmas daisies gracing our dining table

 

 

 

 

 

 

As memories fade of a summer that only occasionally was...

As memories fade of a summer that only occasionally was...our thoughts turn to preserving and pickling everything in sight!  After the second lot of chutney was made, we mulled 1.5kg of pears and made 5 jars of blackberry and apple jam.  We still have lots of apples and blackberries which is good as I don't think this jam will last very long.  The recipe is quite simple, but adds a little cinnamon and nutmeg, which is just lovely, so I wanted to share it:-

Blackberry and Apple Jam

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8112/blackberry---apple-jam.aspx

Ingredients

• 1kg of blackberries
• 750g green apples (cooking, about 6 peeled & cored)
• 1.5kg caster sugar
• 125ml water
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• Equipment
• biggest saucepan you've got (30cm across)
• 10-12 jars

Preparation method

1. First put a small plate or two in the freezer.
2. Put your clean glass jars and lids on greaseproof paper on a oven tray and put in the oven. When you start cooking turn the oven on to 100 degrees C. This sterilises the jars and makes sure they won't crack when you put the very hot jam in them.
3. Peel, core and cut apples into small chunks (the smaller the quicker they cook, but having chunks to bite in your jam is nice too, so not too small). Put them and the water into your saucepan. It needs to be big because the jam bubbles up nearly three times the volume. Cook with lid on over a medium heat for about 10 to 30 mins (till soft, but not mushy) add the blackberries for the last 5 mins.
4. Lower the heat and add the sugar and stir with out it boiling until its all dissolved. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg.
5. Bring the jam to the boil and boil for 20mins-ish, stirring often. Don't put the lid on, but wear long sleeves and use the lid as a shield as it can spit boiling sticky jam and it hurts!!! Stir across the base of the pan to check its not sticking or burning. When the jam falls from a tilted wooden spoon in 'thick sheets' (slightly glupy, no longer runny) test for setting point. If you have a sugar thermometer the temperature for jam is 104 degrees C, but if not that's why you put a plate in the freezer with a puzzled face.
6. Remove from the heat, place a little jam onto the cold plate and place it back in the freezer for 30 seconds. A skin will form on the surface and will wrinkle when pushed with your finger. If it's not doing this put it back on the heat and try again in a bit until it does.
7. Get your jars out of the oven and ladle it straight into the jars up to the start of the neck. With a clean/new damp cloth clean the edges of the neck (inside and out) and seal with lid. If you're like me, once all are sealed, then clean the rest of the jam off the jars and leave to cool. Store in a cool, dark place for 6-12 months. Refrigerate after opening.

It is as healthy to enjoy sentiment as to enjoy jam.
G.K. Chesterton

Full circle - Hazel Cottage one year on...

Today marks a year since we first posted on our blog.  I can't believe its been a year since we started sharing our experiments with growing vegetables and taming the garden, making nice homemade things and buying old bits and pieces.  This time last year I posted all about our adventures with hazels, courgettes and damson jam.  We had a glut of courgettes and apples last autumn, and a wonderful bag full of damsons from someone at work which I made into jam.

This year we've less hazelnuts, our courgettes did nothing and the person who donated the damsons has not been forthcoming.  Luckily we've been given courgettes and apples from family and friends, and so the chutney season has begun, with one batch made a couple of weeks ago and more being made this coming weekend.  We also experimented and after collecting half a kilo of hawthorn berries last weekend, we made Saucy Haw Ketchup (a River Cottage recipe).  I will report back on what it tastes like!

Haw berries

 
We've picked lots of blackberries and been given some as well, which are waiting for me to make into jam or jelly.  I'm looking at recipes and hoping to make it soon.

These aren't the ones we picked!

During our recent holiday we went to Cotehele House in Cornwall, they had wonderful orchards we were a little jealous of...

Now we are back from a week away, we are planning for the Autumn and Winter - what preserves to make, when to make the Christmas pudding, and what to plant for the year ahead.  I hope to have some time during the dark winter nights to start some craft projects, including starting a hexy patchwork quilt.

The seasons roll on and are constantly changing but the beginning of Autumn is a special time to me.  Just reading the wonderful posting about September that Sophie made on Fading Grace and the posting Maria made on Rosy Tinted Spectacles about kicking leaves made me excited about the Autumn to come!

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

A certain kind of light

Driving through Dorset early evening

I don't know whether its artistic sensibility or something learned or just luck, but I've always been quite good at working out whether a photograph will work out or not.  Sometimes its being able to frame something so the general composition works but other times it is just sheer luck and taking chances and hoping it works.  The last time we were down in Devon for a few days I took some chances when the weather was actually good enough to go outside...

I was rather obsessed by the sky not having rain clouds in it!

I loved the light in the late afternoon

Now we are in late August and the sun shines in the late afternoon there is a certain kind of warm glow.  It is the kind of light that makes me want to take endless photographs and try to capture that fleeting moment in time.  Mr C has been managing to capture some wonderful photographs of the myriad spiders and moths at Hazel Cottage in the last few weeks.  All of them finding their way into the kitchen before being set free.

Red-belted clearwing moth, or apple clearwing

Brimstone Moth

Silver-ground carpet moth

In the vegetable garden, the garlic and shallots have been dug up, the beans and tomatoes seem to be doing something finally, and the carrots and beetroot are still growing.  We've eaten one of the cauliflowers and hopefully have two more to harvest. 

The great pickling season has already begun with some garlic being pickled and a jar of chinese pickled vegetables being made.  We are collecting blackberries at the moment and hope to make some bramble jam soon. For my birthday I was given some equipment to start my new project of soft cheese making.  I will report back when I make a start....