Slow September Activities
Counterbalancing the hectic start of term with some spaciousness
The seasons are starting to shift here with September bringing a distinctly autumn vibe along with a little bit of late summer sunshine. The shift in seasons has also shifted the activities with long afternoons stretched out in the garden made impossible by the torrential downpours and the return to school and college. I've purposely left lots of spaciousness during this new beginning, remembering how tiring this transition can be as we start to create new rhythms amongst the sudden return of early mornings, homework and packed lunches. I'm so glad I had the sense to create this spaciousness, just one full week left me shattered! However, with not much to do, I could soak up the sunny spells between a bit of TV bingeing and chocolate eating whilst the house was peaceful! A privilege I'm lucky to have.
At the beginning of last week, a bit of spare time allowed me to use up a glut of blackberries and windfall apples. It became a bit of a project for the week, good to do when the rain was pouring down!
Starting on Monday, I cooked up the apples and blackberries in a little water until they were soft. Once cooled, they sat in the fridge until I had more time. Then I blended the fruit and put it all through a sieve to remove the blackberry pips.
The puree was then thinly spread onto lightly greased baking parchment lining some baking trays. This was then put into a cool oven for 6 hours to dehydrate!
I then actually turned the oven off and left it all over night having run out of time that day. On Wednesday, I cut the dried fruit into strips with scissors, rolled them up and hey presto in the space of 3 days I had turned two big pans of fruit into one small container of fruit rolls/fruit leather, very much like the Bear Yoyos you can buy in the shops!
Unlike shop bought, however, they were made without any single-use plastic using free ingredients from our garden. They are also yum! I don't think they'll last long!
Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fruit_leather_74878 I used eating apples, instead of cooking apples, because that's what I had. I peeled and cored them and then blended after cooking so they were more of a pulp. Let me know if you give it a try.
As the temperature have dipped at night, I've started to bring some plants inside to give them a bit of protection from the cold. So far, I've brought in a tomato plant that self-set late in the season so it won't have time for the fruit to ripen outside plus a tulsi plant. I grew tulsi for the first time this year. I'd never heard of it but got it as part of a seed collection. It makes a nice, almost fruity tea (which I'm drinking right now), simply one small leaf in a mug of boiling water. The plant might overwinter okay inside but I've taken some seeds as well.
I've also been collecting tomato and lettuce seeds in preparation for next year's growing season.
How's your September going? Have you been growing, harvesting or preserving anything?
Thank you for reading.
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