Dorset lifestyle
None of last year’s concoction is left and there will be more than a few months wait for this brew. The jar on the right is freshly made and contains frozen sloes and neat gin, the latest recipes advise adding the sugar after the sloes have given up their juice as then the sweetness can be well balanced. Hope it works! Peeled the last of the Bramley’s and stewed ready for freezing, not as many apples as last year but still a few pounds. A sunny mild day with light winds.
The biggest and juiciest are in Laneside paddock, but there aren’t many left as the donkeys have eaten all of them from the lower branches. There are more growing by the paddock entrance so picked some of those as well, will put them in the freezer for a couple of days as there hasn’t been a frost to sweeten them and help break down their skins. Found enough Bramley fallers to make a crumble, the donkeys had the peelings for their bedtime treat. A cool, breezy, sunny, day.
William and Toby enjoying the sweet new growth from the top of the apple trees, several bags of ‘tops’ have been harvested and hung in the roof of the workshop to dry out, they make an excellent winter snack when grazing time in the paddocks is limited. Picked the first of the sloes, they’ll have to be put in the freezer for a few weeks to sweeten before being added to sugar and gin, with daily mixing the sloe gin should be ready to strain into a bottle in six months or so, ready for summer cocktails. A cool start to a cloudy day.
There are lots in the hedgerows, and the trees that adjoin the paddock are laden, too many are not good for the animals so access has to be restricted, these will go in the freezer for use later. Swallows are still flying in and out of the tack room, no noise from the nest so not sure what’s going on. The bags of donkey poo outside the front gate are still there, the new ‘free’ notice must be attracting attention… ? Widened part of the driveway as it becomes a bit of a mud patch in the winter. Weather much calmer today with light winds and some sunshine, watered the runner and beans and the greenhouse veg.
Filling the hedgerows, Blackthorn spreads into the paddocks and veg patch and grows very quickly. The fruits look ripe but they become sweeter if picking is left until after the first frost which may be as early as September. Sheep like to eat the seedlings so the spread into the paddocks should be controlled. The little frog was in one of the water buckets, I moved him into the nearby shallow pond margin. The fish in the pond will eat frogspawn so I hope the frog will move to the wildlife pond. Lunch at the pub, a sunny cloudy day with rain later, watered the beans and the raised beds.
