Blackberry and Apple chutney

Mum and Dad abandoned some blackberries in my fridge and I pilfered some of next doors apples and made some chutney. Seemed a bit odd mixing onions and garlic with blackberries but we'll have to see. It turned out quite runny and I prefer my chutneys a bit more solid, I can't decide whether to put them all back in the pan and boil it up for a bit longer. 

Garden Pesto

Apparently you can make pesto out of nasturtium leaves, so I thought I'd give it a try. I added the optional pine nuts and used parmesan instead of the hard goats cheese. My marigold petals were looking quite sad, so I used some nasturtium and borage flowers instead. 

The resulting mixture is a vibrant green and tastes very yummy. I have two jars in the freezer and another in the fridge that we have to finish within a month.

Piccalilli

Tristan's favourite chutney! 

I've made 2 batches of piccalilli this year. I reread the recipe and  discovered I shouldn't have cooked the veg only the sauce, so it may taste a bit different this time. 

Most of the veg came from my parents garden I added some runner beans and yellow tomatoes from my veg patch.

Plums

Went for a walk to the nature reserve and found loads of plum trees! The yellow plums were lovely and ripe. 

Damsons

Finally got round to visiting Kate's garden while she's away and picked two bags full of damsons. So far I've made, Sweet picked damsons, damson gin, damson jam and damson ketchup, I have two damson recipes left, damson cheese and damson jelly and I have just over 3 kg of damsons in the freezer! 

Redcurrant Jelly

The redcurrant plant is amazing, I've managed to pick 4kg of redcurrants off a single bush. They all ripened in July some before others, which was handy because I could only process one kg or so at a time.
I used the redcurrant jelly recipe from the River Cottage Handbook No 2. I also made some redcurrant shrub, one batch with gin and the other with brandy. The shrub has to be left for 18 months to mature so, we'll have to wait to see what it tastes like.