Darn it, spoke too soon... I need to get a new medical and TB x-ray done for my visa. Ho hum, I was going to need them this year anyway to apply for residency, so I guess it's just a matter of getting a to it sooner than I'd planned - and budgeted for!
I've spent much of today uploading photos of Summer Gathering to Flickr - almost done now but not quite. I took a few near the beginning of the event, then almost nothing until the last couple of days then went crazy... I decided against uploading the 20 photos of the goldfish in the pond that Liam took, I figured that one would do, but don't tell him though eh?
Well, a long weekend has come and gone, and my to do list really doesn't look any shorter. However there are now about 14 more jars of plum jam in the cupboard, 5 ice cream containers of stewed plums and a shelf full of bags of frozen plums stoned and halved! I'm currently experimenting with making fruit leather with some of them (ta for the idea Jo!) - it tastes very nice and decidedly more-ish, so it can't possibly be good for you... I drafted in the troops to help harvest (and take them away, with compulsory courgettes thrown in for good measure!) - I reckon between us we've picked 60kg of plums this weekend, and there are still some on the tree ripening up to eat.
With all the home produce that's around here it was rather odd to hear on the radio this morning Alison Holst (sort of a Kiwi version of Delia Smith) saying that there's a whole generation of those 35 and under who won't buy potatoes because they need peeling!
Personally I find that rather hard to get my head around, especially given that you can buy them ready scrubbed and not needing peeled half the time anyway. She was recommending some frozen potato product that comes from Belgium on the grounds that it was better that people ate that than not eat potatoes at all... well I guess in terms of diet maybe, but the idea of an 'extruded' potato product from half way around the world (no offence Belgium!) instead of freshly dug spuds from the garden a few meters away or locally grown really does not compute. Considering the concern there is about the rising cost of foodstuffs and the weekly shop it seems even crazier.
Oh well, it looks like our next glut of garden produce will be beans or tomatoes - the race is on. I'm not complaining though, it will sure beat chosing between tinned tomatoes from China (hmmm.... maybe not) or Italy (ouch food miles...).
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