Update on being Domestic

I mentioned earlier this month that I had been pickling cherries and making tomoato relish. The relish took FOREVER to thicken, but now its been in the jar about a week it seems to be getting goopy as far as I can tell by turning the jar upside down. Had a minor panic with the cherries as I went to rotate them and found juice all over one of the jars. I paniced thinking the jar had split. Turns out I hadnt wiped it down properly and it was just excess juice from the bottling process.

This weekend I am attempting plum relish, along with my traditional Hot Cross Buns which I always make on Easter Thursday. Am watching my Eva rose like a hawk to get the hips to make Rose Hip and Honey Syrup - though I suspect its still a few weeks away and I need 4 pounds worth of rose hips...thats like almost 2 kgs. So it will be a few more weeks before the hips are ripe and I can get to it....until then I keep writing my thesis. Current aim is to have a completed draft by June - then have 2 months to "tweak" it and hand in late August/ early September....but we shall see.

I want to win a Camera Bag!!

Yes - it is food related!!! Beyond Snapshots is having a competition to win a red epiphanie lola camera bag. I want in. The theme is red - so what better than a picture of lovely fresh raspberry and apple juice made with fruit from the local farmers market?

From raspberry and Apple

For more info head to the blog linked above and join the fun!

Random Thoughts...

The weather lately has been hinting that winter is just around the corner. This for some reason makes me all domestic and wanting to do STUFF. Seeing I am trying to cut back on the amount of misc food I am cooking that tends to go to waste, I started making tomato relish on the weekend, along with pickling some cherries. If the taste of the pickling liquid is anything to go by they are going to taste AMAZING. But I have to wait a couple of weeks.
Have planted brassicas - purple and green as well as caulis and spinach. I suspect my corn wont ripen before the frosts, but I can live in hope.