Pear and lemon jam

Thanks to www.cottagesmallholder.com, we have managed to use up all the pears we have been given, another delicious recipe found on the internet.

Chutneys and curries

We were given a lot of peaches from a neighbour and although it seems a crime to use them for a chutney they weren't that palatable just for eating, so rather than waste them I decided to make a spicy peach chutney. We miss Sharwoods Mango chutney, so instead of just feeling homesick every time we run out of something I made my own...... wanting to try it out I then embarked a massive cooking fest, 3 vegetarian curries, all the vegetables from our garden,pumkin curry, keerai (spinach curry) and alu sag (potato curry). Of course wasn't complete until Rick fired up the bread oven and made peshwari naan and a yoghurt with cucumber and mint. The peach chutney went down a treat, half a jar consumed, god I love cooking.

All dried out

Parties; praias; processions and pimba pimba

We've spent lots of time exploring the river beaches nearby with our friends, visiting local festa's including our own 3 day Festa which continues today and tonight with a big sardine feast and yet more karaoke.
All the villages come alive in August with lots of out of towners and parties, processions and pimba pimba!

It ain't half hot mum!!

Sorry for absence, it's been so hot here, I haven't really been able to think let alone take random pictures and post anything remotely interesting on the blog........
The garden continues to provide more than enough food for two people. The chest freezer is nearly full of beans; brocolli; courgettes; sweetcorn; plums and apples. The tomato plants are collapsing on their frames under the weight of their fruits, I have never had such a crop, we've only been picking the cherry toms as the others are slow to ripen, you know they will all ripen at once. Rick has built a drying rack which I will use to sun-dry some toms, peppers and aubergines, the rest of the toms will be bottled or frozen as sauces. The sunflowers are drooping in that very sad way they do when they have stopped showing off, the marigolds continue to flower but are on their last legs. All the winter veg seems to be fine, very wilty during the day but comes back to life once the sun has disappeared. The pumpkin patch has died back and all the pumpkins and squashes are just sat their on their nests of hay, waiting.....