why would you make green tomato jam…….!

We are off on the next project , and I have named this patch, Hens Terrace. Every cultivated or worked part of the garden has a name and as top terrace is already taken it seems fitting that we pay homage to the sacrifice my little girls and their noble cockerel have made to allow me to sit and eat with a view of the garden. As I mentioned in the last blog we are going to hold our bon fire party here and I have a pile of recycled paper bricks to burn and it appears an enthusiastic gang of mates prepared to face the cold and join us in this very British landmark celebration. I intend to eat and drink far too much and toast my toes on a bonfire till it is too cold to stay out and you can bet your bottom dollar that by the 5^th of November it will be freezing.

We were going to put the van terraces and this Hens terrace  on hold for a while as we are short of dosh. We need a good lorry load of gravel to make the concrete but we emptied our jewellery box of broken rings and knotted chains today and took them to a gold buying day in Isigny-sur-mer and managed to sell enough to go a long way toward the gravel we need  and a few bags of cement, so, game on. As soon as the fire is dowsed the concrete laying begins, that’s if the frost keeps at bay because we all know that concrete does not set in frosty weather…well, we did all know that didn’t we!

I have been in a crazy propagation mode these past few weeks and have been tending these delicate little fragments of plant waiting and watching for signs of life and yesterday I lined up all my little babies that have been potted up and I am going to have a great selection of stock plants to cheer up the beds next spring. 

 

These are in the getting wet stage, just potted up from the dodgy life and death phase. Once they get to this size and are happy to sit in their own pots then you have plants, and when you look at the result of only a few hours of not very hard or taxing work it all makes perfect sense and is wildly satisfying.

I picked the last of the tomatoes and made my 66^th jar of passata for this winter. The issue here is that I still have 33 jars from last year and as they are bottled are still good.  I had a basket of tomatoes looking at me on my kitchen counter for three days and I couldn’t find the courage to make another batch but my friend Anna turned up unexpectedly so I chucked them in a bag and sent her home with strict instructions to make passata with no need to share as has been her habit in the past. The tomato plants are now lifted and the tunnel is bare except for the winter crop of  maturing cuttings and the odd lettuce which I will try to keep going until winter forbids any more growth.  Last year I tried to make green tomato jam but frankly when you have twenty jars of the most delicious strawberry and black current jams why would you make green tomato jam…….!