September is always a busy time at A Casa do Campo. Firstly, we have the tomatoes ripening madly and needing preserving. This rather cooler and damper summer than normal means they are starting to split and rot already but we have 24 jars of tomato sauce made, ready for the winter, and I managed a couple of jars of sun-dried tomatoes despite our off-and-on-again sunshine. There are jars of chutney on the shelves in my storeroom made with tomatoes and some of delicious cooking apples.
The late summer fruits are in full swing now. We have stored boxes of eating apples (a lovely red-skinned, crisp and sweet apple of unknown variety) and the cooking apples (another unnamed but perfect apple for making fluffy purée). The apple purée I will use as a butter substitute in some of my favourite cake recipes as well as in apple pies and as apple sauce with roast pork. We met up with a new friend last week who shares many of my thoughts on cooking and preserving, gardening and herbalism. It was great to chat, and Jasmine gave me some lovely herbal preparations as well as some much-appreciated apple recipes.
Shelves of preserves and poached pears
Our tiny pear tree provided us with its first crop this year; eight perfectly formed Williams pears. In order to enjoy this treat, I used them all in different ways. From muffins to poaching, gingerbread to preserving in brandy, they have all been lovingly prepared and, it has to be said, mainly eaten. I’m hoping for even more next year, now we have constructed a wire fence around the tree to stop the deer nibbling the emerging shoots. The joys of rural living.
Talking of rural ‘pests’, we have a mole causing havoc in the lawn this year. Every time we smooth over his latest excavation, he moves elsewhere. At least the soil he digs up is useful for potting up plants!
My runner beans and ‘rainbow’ beans are ready for drying and storing over-winter too. Podding beans is a good job for my helpers: aka Mum and S, whilst they are drinking their morning tea. And they thought they could just relax! Ha!
I do feed them copious quantities of cakes and desserts though, in return for their help so I feel they are amply rewarded.
Yours truly and hubby, working hard in amongst the vines
We are also amply rewarded for the hard days graft we undertook on Tuesday, helping our local cura harvest his grapes. Don Pepe is quite a character and nothing like my image of a stuffy priest. We spent the morning climbing the slopes of this heroic viticulture high above the river Miño, picking grapes from the low grown vines, and occasionally looking back down at the amazing view. This then, is, for me, what autumn is all about: preserving our crops with the help of family and friends whether as dried fruits and beans, sauces, or red red wine!
We even got to see one of the Spanish fire planes taking on water in to the belly of the plane from our sacred river. (Below and at the top)
Wow! What a job that is!
I did read your latest blog a few hours after you posted it and replied straight away but who knows where it went!!! As I have never pickled or preserved I am full of admiration for your hard work and so attractively labelled and stored that will keep you all fed during the coming winter! Poached pears and the baking looked good too. Then if all that wasn't enough there was the grape harvest but lovely views I guess (and of the plane) Thank you
You have been very busy Lisa and the results of your hard work are obvious in all those lovely preserves. I do a little bit of pickling and preserving but nothing like you. That's almost on an industrial scale and all so very neatly stored. Impressive! Thanks for another fascinating blog.
Another absolutely lovely post full of the bounty of autumn, Lisa. You could have your own harvest festival! I love the photos of your preserves, baking and grape harvesting. As for the fire plane, what an amazing sight to see! Thank you for showing us some more of life in your beautiful part of Spain.