Now that I've decided to give up the allotment, I've been gradually bringing things home. I brought 3 more raised beds and put 2 in the front garden. My Lovely Mum visited yesterday and despite the light rain, we tidied up the front, put 2 of the beds in the opposite corner and filled one (corner top left) with compost.
I planted it up with snowdrop bulbs (rescued from a relative's garden) plus the 39p pansies and violas. It wasn't my best effort but at least the plants are in. It's not the best time to either buy compost/top soil or even get it free from my recycling centre so I suspect not much more will be done until Spring. At least it looks like it's been cared for now!!
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2 weeks after picking these pears off my mum's tree they were still hard! So I poached them in pear cider with a little sugar and sliced lemons.
The kitchen smelled delicious!! 😋
I got 6 generous portions. 4 for the freezer, 1 for me and 1 for my son and DIL to eat. I've now got quite a variety of fruit in the freezer for the upcoming Winter months.
When I reviewed my September spending (it's on YouTube HERE) I came in at £70 under budget! I was really pleased with that. I'll use some of that £70 to add some storecupboard items to my shopping this week and the rest I'll put into my savings/emergency funds.
My wee channel is growing fast, I now have over 6K subscribers and lots of folk are watching the ads. The predicted revenue is very healthy so I'll definitely be able to make a lovely donation to a wee local charity before Christmas 😍
Strangely I never used to like pears but I do now, especially poached in something delicious as you've shown here.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
They just don't seem to ripen at all then go off!! :-) xxx
DeleteI frequently poach (stew) pears and any hard or iffy fruit enjoy.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I've done hard plums and apricots recently. They don't even need much sugar to bring out the flavour so not too unhealthy! Although the pear cider adds tons of calories!!! :-) xxx
DeleteI’m fed up with fruit that doesn’t ripen but have discovered that poaching it works wonders. Pears with ginger and apples with cinnamon for me. Well done to you and your Mum for progress with the rescued raised beds. Catriona
ReplyDeleteYep, those ripen at home fruit punnets never ripen!! I stopped buying them ages ago but have had a few in recent Lidl boxes. That's why I started poaching them! :-) xxx
DeleteI'm not keen on pears, the only time I really enjoyed them was when I left them in brandy for six months after a light poaching, they made some delicious desserts ... hic!!
ReplyDeleteYour YouTube channel is coming on in leaps and bounds, you have definitely found a niche that needed filling. I have advert-free YouTube so you will automatically get a payment each time I watch and press Like on one of your videos ... and I don't have to suffer adverts. I think I am getting advert-phobic in my old age. :-)
Thanks! I'm not keen on the ads myself but I let them run on the smaller channels :-) xxx
DeleteI was going to ask when i saw your configuration of your raised beds the size of the boxes, are you able to reach into the corners of your planter boxes, i had a friend make a garden box for me years ago but they were made too wide and i had to walk around and couldn't quite get to the middle, I eventually just turned it into a planting island with some blueberry plants and a hydrangea, it's still a work in progress.
ReplyDeleteWere there any plantings from the previous owners, it sometimes take a season to see what comes up. I love what you've done so far and it's exciting to plan ahead for the next season giving you a rest from doing everything at once. Enjoy. Tory
Yes I can just reach into the corners with a trowel!! I did check. Previous owners were not gardeners and had nothing planted except 2 hedge plants that were halfway up the window and a weird creeping jaggy thing!! I had to cut them down. Back garden is literally just grass :-) xxx
DeleteThat’s a great idea for the pears, being in Normandy, France, we are cider territory! My friend has literally tonnes of apples and pears each year but I don’t normally take many pears as I can never get them ripe, I’ll definitely try poaching them now!
ReplyDeleteIt totally changes them, they're delicious! :-) xxx
DeleteHow awesome to be under budget by that amount. I love what you did with the pears you had picked.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I was really happy with that amount saved :-) xxx
DeleteIt looks good from above - well done. The bulbs will be an absolute picture.
ReplyDeletePoached pears are so delicious! xx
I hope they grow as it's not really how you should transplant snowdrops. But they were free so worth a shot :-) xxx
DeleteI was just going to chime in on the pear issue, i've not had many different varieties but i love bartlett pears and i think they are what you would call an eating pear, so good. Tory
ReplyDeleteI love eating pears but recently they never seem to ripen :-) xxx
Deletegood one
ReplyDelete