Soap

I have not posted for over a week, as I have not been well. I am not sure what I had, but I certainly did not feel too good. Not flu or a cold, but just not feeling well. Tired all the time, no energy, could not concentrate on anything, ached all over and had a dreadful cough. I stayed in bed for 5 days. But I am on the mend, the energy is coming back and I have started to make things again!!

Yesterday I made soap - my first ever batch and I am so pleased with it. It contains poppy seeds, coffee and cinnamon leaf oil. Took nearly all day to make. It is just beginning to set.



I have cut it into squares and put it on the shelf to cure. It should be ready in about 4 weeks.
Today I went to pick some sloes from the hedgerows, I got about 5 lb.
I put some into jars with gin to make sloe gin and the rest will make wine, which I hope to start tomorrow.

OUR NEW ALLOTMENT

We have an allotment!!! So excited.

BUT it is just a field and we have so much work to do>

The field has been used for grazing horses for sometime, it is also very dry, therefore the ground is rock hard.

After spending some time planning out how we wanted it to be on paper. We marked out some beds and took off the top layer of grass.

Then we poured loads of water on, went home and had lunch and went back to try to dig.

The water had soaked into the top layer, so Lukey dug it out and then we put more water in and left it.

We made friends with the geese in the adjoining field.

The first area that we are preparing will be for fruit. I hope to grow some raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb, these are all things that I use to make either wine or jam or just to eat! The rest of the plot will be for vegetable- as many as we can fit in.

There are 6 new plots on this field. One already has a shed and some beds dug, another has a compost bin and they have started to dig. Another has a very detailed plan on paper and marked out some areas with string, but done anything else yet. I think that it is going to be very interesting watching it all take shape!!

tomato soup

I had lots of tomatos turning red on the plants in the garden so decided to make some more soup.

I took some vegetables; onions, carrots and celery.


Chopped them up and then put in a pan with a little oil, over a low heat for about 1/2 hour, stirring every now and then.

While they were cooking I went outside and picked the tomatos.

There were loads - a whole colander full. I kept the cherry ones to put in the lunch boxes in the week. Some I saved for lunch - we had greek salad again with garlic and herb foccocia. This has been our Sunday lunch for weeks now, but we love it

I wash the tomatos and cover them with boiling water for a couple of minutes and then skin them.

And chop them up and add to the vegetables. I add some vegetable stock, some herbs and pepper. This is then simmered for about 1/2 an hour.

When it is cooked I blend it with the stick blender until smooth. Sometimes I add a bit of yoghurt to this. Oh and check the flavour.

I then put some in a bowl for lunch the next day. The rest I freeze in these little one portion pots. I made about 14 portions, which is good.