Reap what you sow

Do you ever regret the plants? No, but I have never factored in just how much time has to be spent harvesting soft fruit. I’m just in from a full hour’s fruit picking. Mainly raspberries (almost two and a half kilos) and black currants, white currants, jostaberries and cherries.

This picture actually came from two days ago when John and Jean Lombard stayed and played perfect house guests by helping with the harvesting.   Three of us made light work of it.   But on my own I’m toiling.

But I am not complaining! I am the luckiest person who feels like I have won the gardening lottery.   But my bucket of almost one hundred leek plants need to get into the ground today, as do cabbages, chard and salad.

And then to add to my own haul I bought three kilos of apricots from Monsieur Orisette at the market this week.   I love to buy from him as he is rather struggling; and his wife the indominatable Madame had a fall and broke her wrist, so he is on his own.   So eleven pots of apricot jam are the result of that purchase.

I’ve run out of preserving quality bottles for all the syrup and cordial I need to make.   So I’ll just have to bung everything in the freezer and hope like mad that we don’t get a thunderstorm in the next ten days I have to be away which will take out the electrics in the house.

I did naughtily take another huge punnet of raspberries up to Jean Daniel as a softening bribe.   Along with two bottles of raspberry syrup yesterday. I have to hope my poor neighbour will be happy to be on power failure watch for ten days and come into the house and flip the switch back up in the fuse box when the power goes out. It’s  a common once a fortnightly event if storms occur.   That will teach us for being the only two houses on the highest point of the mountain top.