autumnal harvesting

afternoon folks,

we're having a day off (at least from building work) today and so i thought i'd take the opportunity to update the blog.....

before i move onto the food related stuff a few updates on the barn progress for those who are dying to know where we're at:

- the main living/dining/kitchen room is coming along nicely. it's now over half floored but we have to wait until we can finish the rest because.....wait for it.....this is pretty exciting.....

- the new stone masons have arrived and started work on the fireplace!!! after we waited for months and months for the previous stone masons to reappear (they never did!) we've now got some new fellas in to do the work and it's going well - we should have a nice stone/chestnut fireplace by next week - photographs to come.

- we've got some raw chestnut planks from which we plan to make the cupboard doors for the hall and various other locations - they should look real nice.

- after some considerable debate/measuring/design we've figured out a way that we can utilise the walnut table top we got (thanks benjamin!) to make the kitchen unit counter which we plan to start soon - it should look great.

ok, now on to food!

we dug up the potatoes, onions and beetroots a few days ago and they're now being stored for use in the coming months.

here's a nice shot of some potatoes:



we've also pretty much finished with the greenhouses for this year as last week we had some pretty severe frost which finished off many of the more mediterranean plants.

the aubergines were already finished and so there was no problem there but the peppers/chillies/tomatoes took a bit of a kicking and so some serious preservation is now underway.

nikki has already made a batch of green tomato chutney and is, as i type, making a green tomato and green pepper relish.

here are the unripe little fellas for your viewing pleasure:



and the chillies hung up to dry (we also have a few jars in oil which were VERY nice last year):



we've also had a few trips to the forest to gather nuts!

here are some of the walnuts that we collected from the huge walnut tree we've got:



nikki has already made some great walnut/fresh basil pesto as well as nikki/monkey boy making great walnut/fruit and nut speciality breads - they're so good!

then, a few days later, we went and collected absolutely loads of sweet chestnuts.

we've had a few helpings of delicious roasted chestnuts already and there are loads more to look forward to!

here they are with a cat in the shot for scale:



finally - monkey boy made nikki a beautiful ash training sword for her birthday.

the photographs don't do justice to the grain, colour or carvings but here are a couple of shots anyway:





it's a beauty - no?

ok, i've got some reading to do and so i'm off.....

next time, gairy.