Of preserving

Well just to finish off July here another post. It seemed a long month this time, a lot happening. It really has become too hot to do any serious work on the land and cycling over has become a torture. No matter how early you start, you can't escape the heat. Cycling over to Arcola takes nearly an hour and watering all 18 terraces takes 2. The only way to this sensibly by the way is, by Susan sitting back in the shade operating the tap, whilst I strip to my underpants and hold the hose over my head every now and then.

By the time we've finished that and picked the day's harvest (which puts an extra 10kg onto the back of my bike to lug up our hill again), it's at best late-morning or even lunchtime, and the sun beats down mercilessly. No time to rest though, as we have to do something with all our harvest, before it all goes off. So the afternoons are spent over a hot oven preserving everything: tomato sauce, gherkins in vinegar, green beans in brine, tomato chutney, courgettes under oil, etc. So we're being kept busy enough.

On the side I try and organise this new wine tasting business and post on this blog. So enough for today, it's time for some festas this weekend and some relaxation. I'll tell you all about that in August.

Here a continuation of a series I have started some 2 years ago of amusingly shaped vegetables:

Part 2: the Tomato

Part 3 the cucumber.

This massive thing had escaped my attention by hiding under some leaves, so it got rather bigger than it should have been. Now, before you even thinks about it, I'll censor any rude jokes concerning cucumbers and my wife!