Our Weekend

We spent a very happy and contented 'home centred' weekend, but I have to say it did feel like a whirlwind of activity. Rob was not joking when he said that the black currants were like marbles! I have never seen such a harvest of them. They must really like all the rain we have been having. All the berries seem to in fact (with the exception of strawberries which were very poor this year). We are still holding our breath concerning the tomatoes, courgettes and garlic. But this weekend, for the first time in ages, it seems, the weather was fine and Rob took advantage of it to do some major picking.

Of course, once picked they all have to be processed and what to do for the best? Both our freezers (half of a fridge freezer and a similar sized upright one) were already short on space. Oh for the massive chest freezer my parents had! So we changed our plans. Instead of open freezing and bagging the black currants we stewed them down and pureed them. The puree we froze in 2 cup measures in plastic containers (Chinese take-away containers actually), popping out the blocks when frozen to store in plastic bags. The theory is that this way we can use the puree for ice-cream, yoghurt or for jam making. We make a cross between a jelly and a jam with most of our fruit - avoiding the pippy-ness of jam but getting a higher yield than just using the juice. The boys call it, not surprisingly, 'Jelly Jam'. This, on and off, took most of the weekend, together with making black currant cordial and, a new one for us, rhubarb and ginger cordial (I found some of last year's rhubarb in the freezer and thought I'd use it up to save space).

Add to this hoovering, washing and hanging on the line, a shopping trip to Lidl, playing with the boys, visits to the park, a trip to the recycling bank and the charity shops, cooking, endless washing up and all the usual Sabbath day pursuits ... we are exhausted and would dearly like another weekend, right now, to get over the last one!