In the cottage orchard, here at Coed y Berclas, the branches of the apple trees are weighed down by the fruit they bear. Bit by bit, as they ripen, we are picking lovely red and golden apples which would never be accepted in a supermarket because they are anything but regular in size or shape. They are, however, very tasty, especially eaten straight from the tree. This season’s crop is large so we are storing, cooking and freezing, pie making, looking up chutney recipes and giving apples to friends and family.
The sloe gin is coming along well, the sugar has all dissolved, so I have stopped shaking the bottles and put them all into a cupboard until near Christmas when I will strain the liquid from the berries. The colour is already a lovely wine red.
At this time of year I am also reminded that the end of 2010 is approaching and I have been prompted to work out the tariff for 2011. It will be there on the Tariff and Availability page soon and we already have a number of enquiries. Goodness, doesn’t time fly.
This week, we replaced the gas cooker in the cottage with a sparkling new Cannon with far more safety features. It was on our list of ‘things to do’ but jumped up the list when the thermostat in the old oven started to misbehave. Old cooker out and new one sourced and in within a morning. Is that a record?
Dorothy