The Only Way is Up! (Baby)

 December 22nd. 

Despite the doom and gloom of the never-ending Fun-With-Covid, the morning has dawned clear - the first in ages that hasn't been weighed down by the miserable December grey. Yay! And it's December 22nd - which means that today will have minutely more daylight than yesterday. Yaaaaay!!!

Not only that, but it is a mere 3 days until Christmas, that most loathed of all compulsory-fun holidays - so I might make it after all! My youngest looked me up and down last night and accused me of `being the most festive of us all.' It's true (sort of). She and I made a wreath for the front door. It wasn't quite the scale or ambition of those of years gone by - but a wreath it is and quite pretty too. (Last year the bulk of the greenery came from a lovely big rosemary bush, but it has since died and so the greenery this year is a bit of this and that, scavenged from the hedges.)

We also made our annual gingerbread cookies. This is a tradition we started when we were living in Mozambique, because we couldn't find chocolates to hang on the tree. Turned out it was quite fun to bake and decorate gingerbread together, so we carried on with it when we got back to the UK. Our gingerbread no longer lands up on the tree - but we like to take some to our neighbours and it has turned into our own little family tradition - one that I hope my daughters will continue.

So on the face of it - yes, I suppose I am quite festive. BUT - and this is a proper capital BUT - I suspect that my motivation has little to do with festivity and more to do with distraction against the bleakness of the December weather. Which is probably why we all go so full-out at Christmas any-way. But I will let my youngest continue in the delusion that I am actually a closet Christmas fan...

A day I do appreciate is the midwinter solstice. This marking of the middle of the dark days - the promise of better days to come. This is a day I can get behind! As a furthering of my festive persona, I made a vegetable wellington for dinner last night, which I served with roasted veg and mulled wine ( the latter which was drastically underappreciated by the family). A reluctant cook at the best of times, I have to admit to being rather pleased with my Veg Wellie! There are loads of recipes out there, but I wanted to use sweet potato, so I went for the one in the Guardian (How to make the perfect vegetarian wellington – recipe | Food | The Guardian) which actually uses butternut squash (small detail...) I think the best approach is to look at the basics of the Wellington and then adapt to fit what you have. The mushroom mix in the recipe was, I thought, a bit boring, so I added red wine and fig chutney. And next time (should I ever feel the ambition again), I will leave out the cranberries, since the consensus was that they were `a bit weird'.

And now, the only way is up! Up and up until Spring and Summer. Yay! This morning saw the first frost of what has been a soggy year and the dog and I were out early marvelling at the light and the wonder of it all. C'mon 2022!

Oh - and Merry Christmas, Everyone.

(Almost) Bleak Mid-winter

 And so Autumn has slipped into Winter. Its not been the best of years: a rainy Summer became a rainy Autumn, is now a rainy Winter. The good news is that temperatures have been mostly mild and, until this last week, my greenhouse tomatoes were still offering up fruit. I think their days are now numbered and not even the mild weather can keep them going for much longer, but they have been a bit of salvation for what was rather a dismal year in terms of produce.

The lack of produce has meant a bit of a lack of kitchen activity - other than the fruits of my most magnificent crab apple. What a fantastic little tree! I know I have gone on about it before, but it really is the tree that keeps on giving: gorgeous blooms in the spring, lovely foliage and then hundreds of little red cherry-sized apples from September all the way through to now (the blackbirds are just finishing off the last). It really is a fantastic tree and every garden should have one!

This year my efforts at making crab apple jelly were particularly successful. I put it down to two factors: patience (never my strength) and the addition of home-made pectin. Although crab apples are quite high in pectin, the addition of the latter certainly helped. I made my own from the peelings and cores of apples (from my brilliant little apple tree), froze it and added it to my jelly. Voila! I'm not sure what recipe I used, but this video will give you general pointers: Making pectin for jam and jelly Its easy! - Bing video (Note - he uses crab apples too - but the general principal is the same.)

Not only have I made crab apple  jelly, but I also have two lots of crab apple
gin brewing away at the back of the kitchen cupboard. I tried crab apple gin for the first time last year and it turned out to be even nicer than sloe gin, so I'm making it again! The added bonus of using crab apples is that, after you have strained the gin off, you can cook them down for jelly and you get the most delicious gin-flavoured crab apple offering. Bargain!

But that really is the sum-total of the produce endeavours - jelly and gin. 

I actually have some kale growing in a tub in the greenhouse (there is a HUGE difference between the tender leaves of kale picked from your garden and that chewy chopped stuff found in the supermarket) and some token carrots in a tub in the corner of the garden. Otherwise, everything is a muted shade of mud - or very overgrown. The garden is pretty much out of bounds until February/March.

Which means that I might not get to work it again.

Yes, after much soul-searching, we have decided to move closer to our grown-up daughters. I can't say I'm not sad - I love this house, this garden, these fields - but life is a series of adventures and so we must look forward to the next one. For now, I can only hope that the person who takes over this lovely bit of land, will love it as much as I do...

And now I'm off to scavenge greenery and whatever rosehips I can find, to make a wreath - it is almost Christmas after all. More importantly - its very close to the Winter solstice - which means that the days will start getting longer. Yippee!