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| The light on the field yesterday evening shortly before it rained |
I have no idea how people in the past attempted any type of farming without being armed with either the Encyclopaedia Brittanica or Google (I still think the Encylopaedia Brittanica may still be the most accurate resource but Google is phenomenal if trying to find 101 things to do with cherries as a matter of urgency!).
That said, I have enormous admiration for those who’ve done this for generations and had all this knowledge passed on to them from people who’ve learnt the hard way - by trial and error. I know we’re making our own errors along the way despite being armed with the internet but it is still an enjoyable learning process (even taking into account my mini strop at making in excess of 4 litres of overly sweet elderflower cordial - thankfully served with lemon to cut the sugar it’s actually quite nice!)
In clearing the veggie patch, we wanted to keep the grape vines (sadly not wine vines but grapes nonetheless - worth keeping - they do so compliment a cheese board!) but they need to be relocated and I think uprooting them at this point may be a little ambitious or foolish or both, so Tony wanted to figure out the best way to take a cutting and see if we can encourage them to root. After a little research we discovered all we need is a willow tree in order to make our very own rooting hormone so we’re planning a picnic and a game of boules next week along the river just a few kilometres away in order to snip a few branches and leaves off one of the many willow trees that line the river. I won’t bore you with the details of making the actual compound but will certainly provide an update if it works!
Yesterday evening after a day of temperatures around 31 degrees (or almost 88 depending on which part of the world you’re in) the weather broke and we got a little rain - well, I’ve never seen someone so excited to see rain - it was cause for celebration so after cracking a bottle of Bergerac, we sat outside gleefully watching the rain which of course means that the ground may well be soft enough to rotovate tomorrow.......sadly Sunday dawned bright and sunny and the veggie patch is still too hard however the borders are looking attractive as candidates for preparing in order to get the bulbs and sunflower seeds planted!
I’ve also struggled to find a decent marmalade (not being a fan myself it hadn’t occurred to me that it was a problem but as Tony is a fan and my job is to keep him well fed so he has ample energy for tractoring the days away it has been mentioned....!) so another bonus for having internet access (at a speed twice as fast as we paid twice as much for in Cayman - that’s the advantage of being the only people in the neighbourhood with a computer - there’s no-one vying for our internet speed!) - I searched marmalade recipes and although I am unable to find Seville oranges am going to give Delia Smith’s “Dark Chunky Marmalade” a go with regular oranges including some lemons to hopefully make up the bitterness the Seville oranges are known for - hopefully it will meet with approval (especially as it’s a 24 hour process)...watch this space!
Off to pick cherries today - if there’s no rotovating to be done the tractor can still be used as a cherry picker!
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