Preserving stuff

I have been harvesting a fair bit this last week.

The dehydrator has been busy every night drying Beans, Kale, Courgettes, and  spinach .
We also have a Vacuum sealer which has helped keep the freezer from overflowing because it compacts things into flatter shaped bags.

Yesterday I decided we needed the bottom shelf of the freezer back (it is only a 3 shelf under-counter style ).
There were 6 Seville oranges and 4 lemons in there waiting to be made into marmalade.
I sorted through the saved empty jars to find enough with lids.
It took about 1 1/2 hours to chop them all up and boil it down in the microwave.

Last week I made Marrow and Ginger jam using ground ginger.
The result has turned out quite sloppy as there wasn't enough pectin despite a goodly amount of lemon juice.
I can see it being mostly used as pie fillings but no matter.

There are about 8 good sized marrows under DD's bed now.
Hopefully they will last w while without needing to be dried or frozen.

Green everywhere

The good weather has helped things along in the garden.

This is the view now and the one back in April looking over the fence dividing the lawn and the veg plot.

The peas are doing much better than expected.

About 6 of the plants were transplanted from modules and the rest are direct sowings.

The courgette/Zucchini bed is about 3 feet tall and lush with growth.

I am picking them and dehydrating as there are too many to eat .

Outdoor tomatoes have picked up well. There are fruits on some which is rather suprising considering they were the left overs from those that are living in the greenhouse.

Here are the outdoor plants with the newly cleared ground  that I have been working on this week beyond.

Here are the washington cherry in the greenhouse

and the marmande with their unusual shaped fruits

Behind them is the old window blind that I had to incorporate yesterday due to the ridiculous 50 degree heat in the greenhouse with the windows wide open and the fan running for hours.

This is a quick snap of the strawberry beds with the cardboard mulch.

Most of the strawberry plants seem to have strawberry leaf spot but it didn't effect the fruit at all.

The cardboard should help to keep it contained.

I will have to keep my eye on them though because I don't see any runners yet and I might need to train them into pots as they cant very well root into the cardboard.