Medlar Fruit Jelly

 

I have been busy making jelly again. Perhaps this is becoming more of a cookery blog than craft blog. We have a single medlar tree in the garden, and other years I have not picked the fruit. But maybe because we did not have as many apples and pears as other years, this year the medlar tree seemed full of fruit, so I decided to give them a go.

I had not heard of this fruit, but apparently they were very popular in medieval times, and because of its appearance had some quite rude names. As you can see they are rather a strange looking fruit, and really quite hard. You have to pick them, and leave them to blett, which means ripen until they look as if they are almost rotten. Some I left a bit too long, but I ended up with about a kilo of usable fruit, and used this recipe on the RHS site to make the jelly. It is a lovely colour, and tastes of apples.

 

My dog is the one who loves the medlars, and if I cannot find her she will often be under the tree snacking. 

Country Life

 

I've been busy here in the country, but can't believe I have nothing woolly to write about. There just seems a lot of other things to do, and although I have the beginnings of an idea for a new pattern, I am not sure it is going to work out. It is funny like that, sometimes things just fly off the needles, and other times not.

I have booked a table at another craft fair, not until December, and am thinking about making a few very small knitted toys. I felt that there were one or two children at the last fair, who had been give £1 to spend, and would have been very happy to buy a little toy. The current UK news seems to be suggesting there will be no toys in the shops, so perhaps homemade/local is the way to go.

At the top of this post is my single jar of homemade Rose Hip and Apple Jelly. Here is a link to the recipe I used. I love the beautiful colour, and hope it was worth the effort of getting prickled picking the rose hips. The apples came from the supermarket, as our very small crop of apples is all brewing into cider.

Apart from that I have been busy tidying the garden. This isn't my usual garden diary, as a lot of autumn tidying is not very photographable, but here is a selection of the squash we grew. The first is called honeyboat, and then there is the butternut. But finally the more mysterious white acorn squash, which I did not buy seeds for, but just appeared. I think there must have been a mistake at the seed packeting factory, but it was very excited to realise we had something unusual among the other plants.

We also have a few pumpkins, which I haven't picked as yet. I feel they may not be growing any more, but I just like seeing them in the garden.

We have had a few other dramas - losing the dog, and big relief finding her. And I have got a part-time job at a school. I don't begin until November, but am hoping it will really help me feel part of the locality.  

Finally a photo of Lanhydrock House, which we visited at the weekend.

Still plenty of time to to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for October.