Friday 17 June 2011

Blackcurrant bonzana!

We walked to our lottie last night and on the way down the drive to our plot we noticed that the council-planted blackcurrant bushes were cleverly being covered by some opportunistic plot fellows to safe the berries from the many birds :)

This made me think about our own plants and whether we had many. All the cherries are gone AGAIN this year - so not fair and we didn't look after the strawberry plants at all and I haven't even bothered to look at them *slaps wrist*. Ronnie walked past us later in our visit with a big washing up bowl over flowing with the best looking strawberries I have ever seen (he's cheeky and didn't even offer one - I love Ronnie, so competitive).

Anyway we have a lot of blackcurrants it turned out, each of the 6 or 7 plants had beautiful clusters on them and there are more ripening away. I picked around a pound and was very happy getting my fingers all reddened :) Here's what we did with them, added sugar and ...... made a thick luxurious jam come almost sorbet  - yummmmmmy
It's amazing and no, hands off, it's all ours, hahahaha.

Whilst I was picking away I came across two of the saddest looking gooseberry bushes ever. Nematode attack number 1 has failed utterly and totally. These little buggers are from one plant alone, I bagged them up and put them in the bin; I accidentally squished one and almost vomited, it's not a nice feeling. I HATE sawfly caterpillars with a passion that requires a lie down and some soothing music.....


DIE DIE DIE!!! (sorry about that)

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And today is Andrew and my 6th Wedding Anniversary - we're going out for a special dinner and everything!! I love my hubby :)
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11 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary! I hope you both have a lovely evening. Mo

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  2. that blackcurrant jam looks sooo good! enjoy! and enjoy celebrating your anniversary! 6 years is a long time! well, to me it is since i'm not married yet :P

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  3. Congratulations on the anniversary - it's our 36th this year!

    We are also picking blackcurrants which surprisingly the birds don't seem attracted to

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  4. Happy Anniversary and a wonderful dinner to go into the next year!

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  5. I missed having blackcurrants so much (always had them in the garden in England) I finally hunted down a plant for this garden. It's growing, but no fruit yet. I can't wait though. The jam looks scrummy! Happy Anniversary!

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  6. happy anniversary to you both xxx

    oh gosh I'm lucky then that my gooseberry sawfly larvae seem to have disappeared - though I haven't been looking for them lately so maybe they have been quietly munching away while I've been sick? I hate them too - we only have about five gooseberries on the three bushes this year because they ate all the flowers!

    the slugs/snails seem to bypass the organic slug pellets and head for my strawberries too though I have had a couple that made it unscathed - you can't beat eating things straight from the garden really can you?!

    love you loads xxxx

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  7. happy happy anniversary a few days late....you guys are so cute together

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  8. Am I allowed to swear on your blog? I have similar sentiments about sawflies! Those B***ers just eat through a whole plant without warning! grrrr

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  9. Lovely jam
    Happy anniversary

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