A busy morning in the Patch Kitchen. Sunday February 15, 2015.

Just thinking I would finish off pipping all the Damson plums that were left in the bucket, somehow I got sidetracked. I have ended up with fresh bread, plum and cinnamon muffins, a slow cooking Chilli con carne, preserved Damson plums, zucchini pickles and a Sparkling Plum drink brewing. And that is to add to the Plum leather I made yesterday. 

I haven't made Sparkling plum today but am following the basic principles of making sparkling drinks like Elderflower. 875g of pipped plums, 750g of sugar ( less than the recipe for Sparkling rhubarb which I tried once before and found a bit sweet) 18 cups of water, 1 chopped lemon and 200ml of cider vinegar. Mix the lot together and let sit for 2 days before straining into PET bottles. Leave for at least two weeks for the drink to ferment and create bubbles. Let's hope it tastes as good as the elderflower as we are down to the last of the big batch I made for summer.

No room left on the bench so it is time to quit!

Tantalising Tzatziki. February 7 2015

Two posts in one day to make amends for only one in January.

I have just been making some Tzatziki dip to have a lunch time and thought I would share. Grated cucumber fresh from the garden mixed with crushed garlic, homemade yoghurt, olive oil and fresh dill are all mixed together with a bit of salt and pepper. How easy is that? And how yummy does it look?

Plums plums plums. Oh, and more plums! February 7th 2015

I haven't done very well with my New Year's resolution for writing this blog more frequently have I? Oh well, life gets just too busy sometimes. 

The fruit crops are bountiful this season so just keeping up with them has taken up a lot of time. Last weekend I made some Plum cordial from the lovely Angelica plum which for the first time had a decent crop. I also made a Plum cinnamon ice cream which tasted like a frozen version of my plum cake was gobbled up in a few days.

           

The Damson plum is absolutely laden but not quite ripe yet so soon it will be full speed making of jam, cordial, Worcestershire sauce plum leather and whatever else I can think of! They are not so nice for eating fresh but are very flavoursome when cooked.The Satsuma plum didn't fruit very well as in 2013 we lost its Santa Rosa cross pollinator so now have to wait until the new one bears enough blossom.