old jam-jars banned!

"Please take note: this looks like a spoof but it's not" .warned the Churches Legislation Advisory Service leaflet I received at work

They warn you reuse jam-jars at home and for private gifts for friends, but you are not allowed to  make jam, chutney, etc, and put in reused jam-jars to sell or give away at a public event!

CLAS contacted the Women's Institute,on the assumption that if there were a flaw in all this the WI would have spotted it. But no luck!

I know someone who makes a lot of jam and chutney which is sold by various local groups she supports. The fruit and vegetables come from her allotments and from hedgerows, but the sugar etc she donates. The extra cost of buying new jam-jars would be very unfair.

And why? What danger in practice does reusing jam-jars cause?!

Tiny crops

Here is a picture of my one and only cucumber:

And my one and only carrot:

Lucky I am not relying on my vegetable patch to eat!!!

slow picking of sloes for gin

According to the books, if you wait till after the first frosts to pick your sloes for gin you don't have to prick each sloe berry as the frost has softened the skins. The one time I waited, I found the berries had all dropped from the bushes.

So today, a bright, sunny September Sunday, I went to Epping Forest to get sloes for sloe gin, wondering what I would find after our rather odd Spring. Found a great long hedge of sloe bushes but very few berries - though those I did find were a good size. So I picked what I could find, and reach. Then came a few bushes that had lots of berries on, so finished filling my soya dessert tub with no problem.

I walked a little further to check the sloe bushes where I used to pick my sloes, to find separate bushes had grown and spread into a thicket - with not a single sloe.

I have just pricked all the berries and put into a jar with sugar and gin. Official quantities are 450 g (1 lb) sloes, 100g (4oz/1/2 cup) sugar. Put together in a jar, shake every day until sugar has all dissolved and then leave for 3 months. Pour off sloes into bottle. Use the gin-soaked sloes to make sloe brandy (sloes, brandy and more sugar).


I've now tried instructions from Pete F to get paragraphs in my post - fingers crossed!

Kittens make it curtains for curtains

I had some padded curtains in my bedroom that I got years ago at an Oxfam shop. Getting 2 14-week old rescue kittens nearly 3 years ago meant they were badly ripped. They semed to have calmed down so I thought I would get some replacement curtains. I don't go for expensive curtains, especially as the cats might decide to dig their claws into the new pair, but I found some gold ones in a catalogue (my bedroom is dark wood with gold/golden yellow). The curtains are very thin material with very thin linings so they are letting in a bit more light than the old pair, even allowing for the old pair's missing stuffing! The catalogue also sold thermal linings, but black-out, thermal linings. I like to open one eye and tell whether I can roll over and go back to sleep or doze until the alarm goes (autumn and spring) or be able to tell at a glance at the clock if there is time to roll over and go back to sleep even though it is already light without waking properly (summer). When I did a thermal lining curtain workshop with Transition Leytonstone last year I made black-out, thermal linings for the spare room curtains as the window is not far away from a street lamp. At New Year I warned a friend that they were black-out linings but the significance didn't sink in and she would have overslept if I hadn't been up and about watching the time! Hopefully I will see Jan, who ran the curtain lining workshop, at a Transition Leytonstone even and she will have some thermal curtain linings I can buy.

seddum envy

This picture of one of the clumps of autumn seddums at Pashley Gardens does not do it justice. This was one of the smaller clumps, six foot (two metres) across and three foot (one metre) at least deep.

They had lots of honey bees feeding on the tiny flowers:

And this is my largest clump of seddums:

It can't be that my garden in north east London gets comparitively little rain, and that I don't water the flower beds. It has had plenty of rain this year!

Comfrey "cream" turning into comfrey "soup"!

The comfrey cream I made with comfrey and coconut oil has melted in the hot weather. The coconut oil I use on my hands sometimes after gardening is only a tiny bit melted. If I make it again I will have to use petroleum jelly which doesn't seem so natural! Yesterday (Saturday) out with friends so didn't get my weekly wash done. So this morning, before I went out on my bike to pick blackberries, i put in the sheets and the towels. I hung those out to dry, and put in my clothes. I had just started hanging out the clothes when I heard what sounded like gravel landing on the conservatory roof. I suspected rain, looked up - yes, clouds. Then a drop or two landed on me. I wondered what do do, risk it hoping it wouldn't be much and the sun would soon dry up any additional wetness or take everything in. I decided I would take in the sheets and the towels as they were almost dry. As the drops were becoming more frequent, I then decided I would take in everything. I was glad I did - we had a thunderstorm and it would have got soaked!

Butterflies and bees

There was a peacock butterfly in my garden yesterday, the first I have had in my garden for years. Generally, however, less butterflies than usual. Today there was a cabbage white and a large brownish butterfly and a small brownish butterfly. Even though the small one flew past my face only six inches away from my nose, I still couldn't see what it was! Worried about all the bees that were feasting on my foxfloves, bell flower and love in the mist. There's not much for them in my garden now. I do have a bronze fennel is full of flowers for hooverflies and I saw some bees on that today which pleased me. I got a "Herbaceos Coreopsis" from Homebase today. Good for butterflies and bees - and drought tolerant. Does need full sun and I don't get much of that. Have put the pot in a sunny place, but would like to get it into the ground as it should keep going for several years.