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About two days a year we can see the true lie of the land here as all the grass is trimmed to ground level at the same time. For the back “paddock” that usually means some form of hay cutting or baling has been going on.

250 bales await collection, and there would have been more if I hadn’t got impatient with both crap “rural customer service” and extreme quotes and started to cut it with the ride-on. Although it was doing a really good job, it was quite a relief to have someone pull up and say they’d cut, bale and take way what was left. They’re welcome to it!

As we still had a few loose apricots lurking around after we’d made our next year’s supply of jam, what next? Preserves or sauce? Tough call, but we decided sauce. So another 2kg (stoned weight) of apricots and substantially less sugar than the jam later, we have two bottles of sauce.

I think I prefer jam making over sauce. Certainly seems to take less time, and at least there’s a test to tell when it’s ready.

This year I wanted to do something with apricots. Preferably make jam, as I love apricot jam. First of all we had to source some apricots from somewhere. Our fruit trees are currently not at the fruit producing stage, or if they are they keep getting hammered by the grass grub beetle right at the wrong time of year and decide that energy is better spent just staying alive than trying to bear us any fruit.

But all was not lost! As I used to work in the orchard industry some years back now during my school and uni times I meekly and politely asked them for some apricots. Well, to be honest I asked my mother to ask them for me. (Thanks Mummy!) And much obliging they were too, donating some good ole Central Otago apricots (and a few yummy Dawson’s cherries thrown in as a yummy bonus). In fact it was a pretty big box of apricots, so huge thanks Kathy and Bill!

Stage I: Cook the fruit a bit until soft. Easy enough. No dramas there. Bubble, bubble, bubble…

Stage II: Add the warmed sugar. Warmed sugar? How the hell do you do that?! Ah. Thanks Google!
[Visual record of this stage not recommended if you actually want to eat any of the jam!]

Stage III: bubble, bubble, bubble until the “setting point” is reached. Hmm. OK. I think we managed that, but only time will tell, I guess.

Stage IV: Bottle it up, and stack in the cupboard.

So from 2kg of fruit and and [an undisclosed amount] of sugar we managed to get nine jars of jam of various sizes. I suspect that’ll get us through a year. Unless it’s just so yummy that we have it on porridge, scones, chicken breasts as well as the usual toast.

Now we just have to think of something to do with the rest (about half a box full). I am thinking some yummy spicy apricot sauce.

This time it was the shallots turn to be ripped out of the ground and given some air. It was almost a year to the day since the last lots were lifted (I’m just a bit slow getting this entry done).

So to recap the multi-year history: Planted 5 bulbs the first year and harvested about 16 or so. Replanted 9 of those this season (eating the rest) and harvested 26. Think we’ll reserve 17 this year to plant out around June and eat the rest.

I’ve no idea what the difference has been this year, but some of the bulbs are massive. Onion size at least. Think they might be some of the ones we’ll chow down on, along with the smallest ones and keep the middlers for the garden.

It’s been a while since any progress has been made on the raised beds. In fact is appears it has been a full two months since we got to three. Time for two of the three old gardens to be overgrown with potatoes.

But now we have five!

The eagle eyed among you will notice that the rightmost garden is a little wider than the others. This is so for several reasons. a) It works out we waste less wood given we can’t have the remaining two gardens as long as these ones or there’ll be no room to squeeze the wheelbarrow around the tunnel-house, b) it makes maximum use of the square corn patch from last year (and any dirt you’ve dug here you try to make maximum use of indeed!), c) it brings the garden-to-be above the last one into line with the previously dug onion patch so we can make use of that plot too (refer to item b).

Because it’s taken so long to get them ready I’m not sure we’ll get any use out of them this season, but that’ll give us time to consider digging them out a bit (possibly not really), spraying the grass/weeds in them (pretty much guarenteed), and filling them in a bit with compost and stuff (probably/certainly).

As we’ve not yet mastered the art of getting trees to grow to the point where they’re useful for shade in a very short time we thought we should invest in something to provide us with a bit of respite from the very hot summer rays

there’s even a couple of extra walls that we can use to block the sun/wind from the sides. Not quite the usual square gazebo, but we figured we might need something just a bit more sturdy to cope with the usual summer “breezes”. Although pretty much as soon as we’d set it up we pulled it down again before the forecast very gusty nor’ westers hit. (Which they did. For days. Poor spuds aren’t liking it much.)

But should do us for a summer or two until we get something resembling some trees to lie under.

These have pretty much crept up on us this year. First up, the cucumbers. It seems they’re a bit like pancakes. The first one is always a bit deformed!

And then there’s the first actual chillies of the year. Much more exciting!

Wonder what’s next? I’m sure you do too!!

Once again the forecast is for rain in the near future, so I figured it was about time the the garlic joined the onions drying in the last remaining heat. It was very, very pleasing to note that they are a lot bigger than last year’s efforts!

Twenty one bulbs in all, with one fork damaged on harvest, and one a little soft on one side. That might almost last us though most of the year. Maybe. I suspect we’ll be a few short still, especially if we want to replant some of this lot for next year’s batch. Memo to self: A bulb a week with extra for the garden might be a good amount to aim for next year…

This year we thought we would try and make a Christmas cake. Not sure why as I don’t even like fruit cake. I think for me it was more about giving the icing a go. So we found a cake recipe in the back of my cake decorating book and thought we’d give it a try. And after 3.5 hours of cooking on a low heat it was ready.

Then after a day or two came the fun bit of putting on the icing. A two step process – almond icing first and then royal icing next. I have never used either before, and it was not as complicated as first thought. But it was hard work trying to get it perfect and that is something I have not yet mastered. Only time and practice I guess will get it perfect. But I am pleased with the first attempt. Oh, and I didn’t make the little characters on the top, obviously!

And the cake itself? Well it isn’t too bad, in fact those that have had it have said it is very nice. So I guess we will use that recipe again next year and perhaps even try and make some little characters ourselves to put on the top out of icing too.

After taking up a relatively large amount of real estate for which seems like a very long time, it was finally time to de-onion the onion patch.

We were a bit slack, or a bit green, and didn’t manage the patch particularly well, so about half of the onions had produced a flower stalk that we should have recognised and bent over a lot earlier. All those that had created a nice flower are still “installed” in the garden, drying up a bit, ready for more immediate use in the kitchen. That probably accounts for about half the crop.

Due to the (current) weather report suggesting that we’re in for a bit of rain and drizzle over the next few days, the other half got transferred into the tunnel house, with the anti-bird netting doing a sterling job of acting as a drying rack on the off chance that we need to store them for any length of time.

I suspect, given the rate we normally rattle through a bag of onions, that we’ll use them all pretty quickly anyway, but you never know.

Would I plant them again? I’m not sure. As they’re so cheap to buy most of the time I suspect it’s possibly better use of garden space to plant more interesting things. But I have enjoyed watching them grow, so we’ll see. If there’s a spare plot going, I wouldn’t say no.