Jamming with ma chillies.

 I've a small glut of cayenne chillies so I'm going to try a chilli jam. The recipe below I pinched from nigella.com 

Wish me luck.

Ingredients

• 150 grams long fresh red chilli peppers (deseeded and cut into 4 pieces)
• 150 grams red peppers (cored, deseeded and cut into rough chunks)
• 1 kilogram jam sugar
• 600 ml cider vinegar

Method

You will need 6 x 250ml / 1 cup sealable jars, with vinegar-proof lids, such as Kilner jars or re-usable pickle jars.

1. Sterilize your jars and leave to cool.
2. Put the cut-up chillies into a food processor and pulse until they are finely chopped. Add the chunks of red pepper and pulse again until you have a vibrantly red-flecked processor bowl.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a wide, medium-sized pan over a low heat without stirring.
4. Scrape the chilli-pepper mixture out of the bowl and add to the pan. Bring the pan to the boil, then leave it at a rollicking boil for 10 minutes.
5. Take the pan off the heat and allow it cool. The liquid will become more syrupy, then from syrup to viscous and from viscous to jelly-like as it cools.
6. After about 40 minutes, or once the red flecks are more or less evenly dispersed in the jelly (as the liquid firms up, the hints of chilli and pepper start being suspended in it rather than floating on it), ladle into your jars. If you want to stir gently at this stage, it will do no harm. Then seal tightly.

Frustrated.

Hi, frustrated here or all work and no play is making Stewart a dull boy.
6 days a week, 11hrs a day for a below minimum wage without any benefits or super isn't helping matters much either. On top of that I'm only getting, at best, a half a day a week in the veggie garden.

But I'm not sitting here wallowing in self pity, I'm putting a plan of action together to see if I can dig myself out of the hole I'm in. Resumes are flying left right and center and with some luck I hope to get a job as a disability support worker with better pay and conditions and more respectable working hours leaving more time for myself. Driving a cab is enjoyable and rewarding work but the low pay and long hours are wearing pretty thin.

As for the veggie garden there is some progress with Broad Beans, Peas, Lettuce, Garlic and up until last nights possum attack I had some cabbages. Spinach has suffered under the hands and chewing of the possum as well.

The strawberries have had some TLC in the form of compost and some cheap composted cow manure I purchased from Masters.

3 from 4 of the bunching shallots have sprouted and the 4th is just sitting there and might get around to it anytime it likes.

I've also planted a punnet of Tomatoes in the warmest part of the garden as an experiment to see if I can get any tomatoes during winter. I'm thinking with the cold nights and short day length that it will be unlikely but you've got to be in it to win it.

Anyhow that's about it for now, I have to go out and put some cut up apple in the possum trap to see if I can save what's left of the veggie garden.

Cheers and don't let the possums bite.

Stewart.

P.S. I nearly forgot to mention the best bit. The veggie garden received 26ml of rain last Thursday and Friday. Doing the happy rain dance.

I planted some garlic.

I planted some garlic. Here's how I did it. And remember, pointy end up.

Snuck

Just snuck it in. Planted some lettuce seedlings, tided up a few strawberry runners and got a few cabbage seeds in and now we're getting some rain.

How to plant Shallots.

Short little video I made with my iPhone.

I'd love to know what you think! I might make a few more.

Storms with some rain

Storms with some rain in them have been predicted for this weekend so I'm taking as much of my health as I can summon and I'm a planting seeds.

So I got a row of Spinach in and hoed over a few sq mts for peas and ran out of puff.

Tomorrow I'll plant the pea seeds and start getting a bed ready for some broad been seeds.

It was nice to smell the smell of freshly turned moist soil.

I was also walking through Coles when I spotted some Shallots and picked up four of them and I'll bung em in the garden tomorrow as well.

(The shallot is a botanical variety of the species Allium cepa, to which the multiplier onion also belongs. The shallot was formerly classified as a separate species, A. ascalonicum, a name now considered a synonym of the currently accepted name. Wikipedia)

I've also got some Garlic saved from last years harvest to plant as well. Seeing as I'm going back to work on Monday it's looking like I've got a few busy days ahead.

Cheers

Stewart.