The Shop and the Reservoir

Hello all,

I've had a super duper fun day today, which I will talk about once I have told you a little about our community craft shop. 

Myself and twelve other ladies, and more recently a man, run a community craft shop in our local community centre. The crafts include handmade chocolates, quilts, cushions, cards, jewellery, preserves (mine), woodwork, slate-work, silversmith jewellery and glass fusion. It's an amazing shop full of incredibly unique creations. Truly stunning. 

During this summer we have been loading a selection of our products into the car and taking it to various craft days and events. Two months ago, and pre-blog, we attended the local Carnival and not only did we socialise and have a great day out watching the parades and floats, but we told hundreds of people about the shop and ignited interest in local artists and crafters. We also made a fair bit of money, which goes straight into the shop piggy bank to spend on more events! Hurrah. 

Today, the shop attended Lliw Valley Reservoir. It was a fun day for kids so lots of local organisations came forth and did face-painting, sports, painting etc. One lady from the RSPB, who might possibly have had the coolest job in the world, made "Bug Hotels" from pine cones and recyclable objects. It took all sorts of will power not to abandon the shop and go and play. 

Here are some snaps of the day...

Homegrown and homemade chutneys, pickles, relishes etc by Oscar's Kitchen

Handmade chocolates by SJ Chocolates in Horton, Gower

Silversmith jewellery by Linda Hughes, Purple Panda Designs, and cards and hearts by Fiona Stirling, Shabby Sheep

 Scented heart pillows by Fiona Stirling, Shabby Sheep

Fused glass by Mel Jones, Melta

A slow worm I found on my front doorstep. This has nothing to do with the blog. 

Handcrafted woodwork and homemade paper by Gaynor Fuge, Random Layers

Slate by Nigel. He needs no introduction. 

So, that is a selection of what Crefftau Y Bont (welsh for Pontardulais Crafts) has to offer. It really is an amazing shop with these amazingly talented crafters. 

Oh, and the Fun Day went well.

Ruth and Oscar (he is currently curled up fast asleep on my lap, feigning interest in his blog.)

5am Pickle

Afternoon,

Oscar woke me up at 5am this morning and made me get out of bed and let him outside just so he could go and sleep on my brother and sister-in-law's car (they have come down from Bury St. Edmund to visit for a few days. They have a nice car). I was wide awake at this point, and so decided to do some morning cooking whilst listening to Frank Sinatra and waiting for Tesco to open so I could get some fenugreek seeds.

I made Spiced Courgette Chutney to begin with, using the delightfully humungous courgettes picked from my garden; then I made a batch of Beetroot Relish, and then 4 batches of Caramelised Red Onion Chutney.

I finished this craze of cooking with some Indian Lime Pickle. I took some pictures to show you, although unfortunately, some clever sod hasn't invented smelling cameras, so I will have to tell you that this pickle smells so good, having to wait a month before I can try some seems like torture.

I started off with some limes. 10 limes made one batch according to the recipe book, but I use 20 at a time and double everything else. That makes about 6/7 12oz jars. Ish.

I fried the limes in some oil, on a low heat, until they gave off a strong zesty smell. That took about 2-3 minutes. I removed them from the pan before they started going brown.

Once they had cooled a little, I quartered them, and cut each quarter into three or four cubes. I must stress how dangerous this part is; I almost lost an eye to a potent mixture of hot oil/lime juice. Could've been disastrous...

I put some more oil in the pan, and added (from the red blob and going clockwise) chilli powder, ground fenugreek, asafetida powder and turmeric, and fried. Amazing smell. I fried these for about a minute.

I added the chopped limes, heated it all through until the oil started bubbling, and then I spooned it into hot, sterilised jars. I now have to wait a month before they can be sold/opened, as they need a fair amount of time for the flavours to develop and become irresistible.

I think it looks really pretty, but then I am biased. But even if I wasn't biased, I reckon that could be some of the most beautiful lime pickle.


Hope you're all well,

Ruth

Saving Seeds - Part 1

Afternoon all,

I've had a fantastic day in the garden today. It's been one of those days where I've got loads of things done.
I weeded the garden this morning, so now all my beds look neat and tidy. Then I pulled up some turnips, beetroots and spring onions and had a bumper crop.

The turnips are "Purple Top Milan", the beetroots are "Detroit" and the spring onions are "White Lisbon"

I've become completely turnip obsessed this year. They're such an easy crop, and there are so many different varieties. I've also grown "Snowball" which is really tasty.
The beetroots will become Beetroot Relish, which is cooked with balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, port and orange zest. It's very tasty and very popular. I've also picked some small beetroots, which I'll pickle. When I planted my beetroot, I sowed 4 lines about 3m long. I didn't thin the plants, but let them grow into a beetroot jungle. Every few days I'll pull up the larger ones, and clustered around the larger ones will be 4 or 5 baby ones. So these will come up too, which then leaves space for a few beetroot to grow into giants, while the surrounding beets will stay little and pickle friendly. There is method in my laziness.
The spring onions will be devoured in a salad, or eaten raw with a boiled egg.


That was my morning.


This year I am saving my own seeds to use for next year's crop. I began with my nasturtiums seeds, which had semi-dried on the plants which were situated in my bean/peas bed. I separated them all and let them finish drying in the sun in a draw. The varieties of nasturtiums I had were; Empress of India, Tooty Fruity, Peach Melba and another one whose name escapes me. Empress of India was my favourite, its bright red leaves made my bean/pea garden look beautiful.

In the afternoon, I went down to my grandparents' house. They have an astonishingly beautiful garden full of colour and life and food and flowers and everything I want in my own. We swapped some turnips and spring onions for asparagus peas. I think they got the better deal... However, I spotted their giant sunflower heads which had wilted and dried, so I chopped about 5 or 6 heads off, and my grandparents and I (and a few earwigs) had a great time pulling all the seeds out. I put those out on a tray and left them to dry in the sun.

I've also allotted some vegetables to go to flower so I can collect their seeds too, but I'll tell you all about that when it happens.



Ciao

Blackcurrant Jam at 7am

This morning I woke up early and made some jam. This is how it went.

I picked just under 1.5kg of blackcurrants, and cleaned them. Blackcurrants, as an uncooked fruit, smell horrid. There's nothing pleasant about their smell, it's just awful.

I got this bit over with quickly.

Fortunately, cooked blackcurrants are a different (metaphoric) kettle of fish. Once they've cooked and burst, they turn this beautiful pinkish-red colour, and the smell is incredible. Quite sweet, yet tart. Exactly how you'd expect them to taste.
I cooked them for about 15 minutes, until all the little fruits had disappeared and there was this wonderful liquid, the consistency of a coulis.

Then came the sugar. 1.3kg of granulated sugar went into the pan.
I will be diabetic by the time I reach retirement.

I put the jam on a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
When I first started this business, I was testing my jam-making skills in the kitchen, and I made a small batch of strawberry jam and obviously didn't let the sugar dissolve completely and ended up with this crystallised mess. So if you are making jam, let the sugar dissolve completely.
Once that has happened, it's time to turn up the heat.

I heated up the jam until it was boiling, and kept stirring so that it didn't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, because then the whole batch is ultimately ruined.
Once 10-15 minutes has gone by, it was time to start testing for the setting point.
Lots of people say to put plates in the freezer to get them cold to test for the testing point, which is a great idea if you want to run back and forth to the freezer. I, however, do not.
I do it like this, which I think is just pure genius.
To test for setting point, I placed half a teaspoon of jam on the inside shelf of my fridge (the glass shelves) and leave it for a few moments. Once a few moments have passed, I gave it a squidge with my finger, and it felt like jam. If it didn't feel like jam, I would have let the jam boil for a further 5 minutes and then do the test again.

I let it cool for a few minutes, so that it was scaldingly hot, and a cling-film like sheen covered the top. Perfect. I sterilised some jars (I washed them in boiling hot soapy water, and then dried them in the oven which was heated on a low setting - you can sterilise them in a dishwasher but I don't have one) and then ladled the jam into the jars and screwed the lids on.

There we go. Blackcurrant jam.


P.S Don't forget to clean the jam tests in your fridge.