The Good Life

Something is up at Bookling Towers and it's having a drastic impact on my reading rate! This month I've bottled my first batch of home-brewed wine and set up two more batches. I've baked strawberry tarts using the produce from our four strawberry plants. We've eaten home grown herby salads from the garden - and willed the tomatos and cucumber to geta move on. I've made several loaves of bread, embarked on a cooking-from-scratch spree and now this!

I've never made chutney before and, if I do say so myself, it turned out pretty well. It's a pity I got my labels too wet so they bubbled but at least it tastes yummy.

In the spirit of Freecycling, if I am right to call it that, I've already bartered one pot for strawberry jam and a bottle of the wine for elderflower champagne. Any other takers?

Next up, I've got my eye on Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook, as recommended over on Cornflower's blog, as I'm sure cookbooks don't count as new books so it wouldn't violate my ban. I'm also considering making my own parma ham having read about it in my copy of Preserved... Or am I getting carried away?