Back to work!

First of all to all those who have been worrying about my arm being amputated, it's still attached, complete with bit of bamboo inside! I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they thought they only had to pull out a wee splinter or something! The conversation with the surgeon went something like this:
"Well what have we got here then?"
"A bit of bamboo inside my arm."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep, pretty sure."
"But how did it get in there?"
"Entered from the other side, when I hit a bamboo stick supporting some tomatoes."
"But that's impossible! How deep did it go in?"
"Dunno, but evidently deep enough. I pulled 1 1/2 cm of if back out and your A&E department couldn't find anything else at the time."
"How long has it been in there?"
"Oh about 6 weeks."
"Madonna!"

At that stage the assistant puts in: "Shall I put 'urgent' on the form?"

So he had evidently not sharpened his skalpels yet, also he wanted to know how big the actual thing is. So after filling in various forms and signing my life away to the responsibility of those medicals, I now have to return, stick in me arm and all, on the 8th, to have it all scanned and than have it removed in the hopefully not too distant future.

This is my arm now. Note the wee blob just to the right of the scar (old war wound still giving me the gipes occasionally), it's not an insect bite!

Sorry about that, hope I didn't upset you all too much. Here's a nicer picture for you to look at




Anyway, I can't hang around waiting for those doctors to fix my arm, there's work to be done, and I'm already behind, because of this episode. Today it was time to lift the rest of the spuds. It wasn't a good year for potatoes, with the dry summer again. But it'll keep us going for a wee bit.

We also sowed out our some broad beans and peas for spring harvesting on the terrace where we had just dug up the potatoes. Having been delayed we have also bought some ready plants, leeks and broccoli, to plant out. We had to prepare the beds for them too, so it's been a pretty busy day, and the arm was quite sore by the end.

Yesterday I made some elderberry chutney. I know it's not exactly elderberry time any more, at least not around here, but as matter of routine, whenever I pick elderberries I stick them straight into the freezer, because they are so much easier to strip off their stalks when frozen. But it also means I can use them as and when I feel like it and have a spare half hour or two.

I've already made elderberry jam and liqueur, now I've made a chutney with the rest. Would you like to know the recipe? Well here it goes. Too late if you said 'no'.

ELDERBERRY CHUTNEY

Ingredients:

for pickling spice:

• 2 Cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp juniper berries
• 1 tsp mace
• 1 tsp dill seeds
• 4 dried bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried ginger
• 1 tsp whole coriander seeds

for the chutney:

• 2 kg elderberries
• 500g onions, chopped
• 200g raisins, chopped
• 1 l white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp of above pickling spice tied into a muslin bag
• 1/2 tsp chilli
• 1 tsp mustard powder

Method

1. Simmer onions in half the vinegar until soft.
2. Strip elderberries off the stalks & add to the onions together with the raisins, salt, ginger, chilli, mustard & pickling spice.
3. Simmer until the mixture has softened. Add the sugar, stir well & boil until the chutney is thick.
4. Remove the pickling spice, leave to cool and pot into clean jars.
5. Serve with meats such as venison, turkey or rabbit or spicy mature cheeses.

Put the rest of the pickling spice into a jar and use for you next chutney or pickle. I shall use mine for some green tomato chutney as soon as I have gathered enough jars together again.

Things are looking up!

Well apart from spring in the air putting a spring into our steps there are a good few things to be optimistic about. First of all to our agricultural activities. The mini-winter that usually hits us at the end of March / beginning was a lot shorter and less severe than in previous years. The last weekend in March, especially the Sunday saw quite a lot of rain. It caused another minor landslide on our land, at the end of the terrace where we just planted potatoes. However, by the middle of last week the rain had fizzled out to just the odd light shower and by now has given way to very pleasant temperatures with warm sunshine. We’ve had a couple of foggy mornings, but nothing worse than that.

Accordingly everything has been getting a real growth boost and what the smallholder calls his ‘hungry gap’ - the time of the year when the winter vegetables have been harvested, the preserves come to an end and the spring vegetables are not ready – is nearly over. Another week or so and we’ll be eating our first fresh broad beans of the year, soon followed by peas, strawberries and plums.


The cherry trees are in full flower now, as are the pears, and the apples will follow soon. On the turn of the moon phase we went into sowing overdrive too. Courgettes, melons, cucumbers, broccoli, sweet corn, sunflowers, parsley, dill, celery all were sown out into outdoor beds. In the meantime the seeds sown indoors are growing fast and we shall start planting them out soon. All this helps no end improving our moods.

In addition to that today the prospects of actually earning some money again have drastically improved today. I had closed my small wine agency business at the end of last years as business had dropped off completely due to the current economic climate. I am now in the process of building up something new. I have had a meeting in Pistoia today with an agency, which rents out villas all over Tuscany to tourists. They will add a page to their website with my details offering tutored wine tastings to anyone staying in their villas. I will bring a selection of wines and give an informative and entertaining wee chat. So first of all I should give a recommendation of this agency which has given me this chance to anyone out there looking for a holiday villa or apartment in Tuscany. They are www.italytuscanyrentals.com. My page will appear there shortly.

Si if anyone out there knows of any other agencies near us, renting out villas or running B&Bs or even hotels, I’m available to run tastings for foreigners. Any contact may be useful.