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Now the last quinces have been picked and together with paradise apples made into jelly. Wash the quinces and cut in smaller bits. Remove stem and blossom ends and discard. Do the same with the paradise apples and cut them in halves. Put it in a pot and add water. Don't cover the fruit in water - only about ¾ of the fruit. Cook until tender (½-1 hour) - put it in a jelly straining bag and let strain till the next day.  Measure the juice and add sugar in the ratio  1 liter juice: 800 gram sugar. Cook for 10-20 minutes. Make the jelly test a couple of times, and when it is fine, remove from heat and add Atamon and put it in clean glass jars. Jelly test: Place a tsp hot jelly on a plate and cool (freezer 1 minute). If the surface wrinkles when you drag your finger through the middle of the  jelly, and if it the two edges you make when you drag your finger through the jelly doesn't run together - it is fine. If not continue cooking and repe...

Due to the drought i don't think there will be any raspberries this year.  They started but the flowers withered, so this is their second try, but I don't think they will get ripe before it gets too cold. I still had two portions in the freezer, so this will have to be this years production of raspberry jam. Recipe:: raspberries sugar atamon Add sugar to the raspberries – 400 gram pr. kilo raspberries. Cook for about. 10 minutes. Drain some of the juice ( see blackberry jam ), cook and add atamon and bottle it. Add atamon to the jam as well and pour the jam in cleaned glass jars. Danish

This years harvest of heartnuts and the last bunches of grapes. The heartnuts are a bit cumbersome to harvest, because you have to scrub them thoroughly with eg.  a nailbrush before spreading them out to dry. First of course you have to remove the green peel. It is absolutely necessary to wear rubber gloves because else the peel and the black fibers on the nuts  will color your hands very much. When they are clean and dry they should be able to last very long. This is due to a thick nutshell (which makes them hard to crack) and a high content of antioxidants. I doubt we will be able to test that - my guess is that we will have eaten them long before - they taste well! The grapes have enjoyed the warm summer and produced bunches. Now it s the last ones. The little green grapes are self-sown and allowed to remain in the greenhouse. We have only ever had one vine with blue grapes, but seed propagation obviously doesn't always make identical species. You may also want to ...

There are many "plums" on the blackthorn or sloe tree  ( Prunus spinosa )  this year. The sloe berries are very tart, but that changes when the first autumn frost sets in.That hasn't happened yet, but a trip in the freezer works as well. When frozen they are put in a glass jar and doused in vodka. Steep for a couple of months before filtering, and then the schnapps has to be stored a couple of years before drinking it. The sloe and the paradise apple schnapps soaking in vodka on my windowsill: 😏🍸 Danish

Our quince tree has fine, big fruits for the first time. 4 big "pears" as those above weight a little more than 1 kilo. I peeled them, removed the core and sliced them in small pieces. I put them in a glass bowl and added 3/4 dl water. Covered with a silicone lid and then in the microwave for 9 minutes (800W). Then they were mashed and strained through a sieve and put in a pot. Then sugar was added. I measured the quince mash and took same amount of sugar (1:1) and mixed it in the pot and heated until it boiled. Stir when heating it or it will be burnt. I found it too sweet though, so I microwaved 2 more quinces and mixed it with my first batch. That was fine. So the ratio should be 3 parts quince mash to 2  parts sugar. I added a little Atamon before putting the mash in cleaned glass jars. The mash can also be used for quince sweets. Then you just have to make a 1 -1½ cm thick even layer of quince mash and dry it  like fruit leather in the oven or at room temp...

The paradise apple tree is loaded with fruit. Now it is time to make paradise apple schnapps. I think it is a bit earlier than usual, but this summer has also been exceptionally warm. The seeds  are brown , so I guess they are ripe. Wash the apples and cut off the top and bottom and then prickle the fruit thoroughly: Put the apples in a glass jar and fill with vodka. Let the apples soak in the vodka 2-3 months before you filter it. Danish

I wrote this post 14 days ago: Now the potatoes have been harvested. It is early, but they were fine and dry because of the sunny, dry summer, The sort we grow is Sava, and it has produced some very fine new potatoes. At the moment though, they are prone to turning into mashed potatoes when cooked. I am experimenting a bit with ways of cooking them. The New Zealand spinach is growing well, and some is blanched, chopped and put in the freezer. And still a lot of figs  😋 Now we have had lots of rain, so it is nice the potatoes  have been dug up. All the figs have been eaten or preserved, but there are lots of 2nd generation figs on the tree. Exciting to see if they will get ripe. Danish

Even though the carrots were sown in seed tapes they managed to entangle very thoroughly.   A bit from the greenhouse, and the roses still produce lovely flowers. The rain has done wonders.  Danish

This year's and on the whole the very first  Heartnut dropped to the ground. When the green outer shell has been removed it is not hard to see how it got its name. Picture No. 2 shows the cracked nut with the yellow skin removed. It tasted really well.  😋 I have previously blogged about  Heartnuts.   Unlike walnuts the nuts are in bunches with 4-10 together. Danish

The idea for these pancakes is from an exciting Danish food blog: madenimitliv.dk From this blog I receive  a newsletter each week, with ideas for supper and a shopping list. Spinach pancakes suited me well because there are lots of New Zealand Spinach in the garden at the moment. I altered the recipe a bit. I am not so fond of Mozarella because I don't think it taste of very much. Pancakes: 2 eggs 1½-2 dl milk 1 tsp coarse salt 1 tbsp rapeseed oil 150 g finely chopped blanched spinach (it made  6 pancakes) Stuffing, garnish and dressing: 6 slices of ham grated gouda cheese cocktail tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, 1½ dl Isk added 1 crushed clove of garlic, ⅛ tsp curry, ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper. Bake the pancakes. Put ham on one half of the pancake and fold it twice (quarters). Put in a oven safe dish and sprinkle with the grated cheese and garnish with the bell pepper. Brown in the oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve with tomatoes and the  I...

Still a lot of figs - now turned into a jar of fig jam. Ingredients: 12-14 figs 1 dl cane sugar 7 cm cinnamon stick ½  vanilla bean split and seeded 2 tbsp lemon juice Atamon (preserve) Wash the figs and cut the stem and  bottom and cut in quarters. Boil with sugar and spices on low heat for approx. 20 minutes until most of the juice is evaporated. Remember to stir often. Then blend - make it boil again - remove from heat and add Atamon. Put the jam in a cleaned jar. I found the label on: avosmarmites.com where many free labels were to be found. Danish

Ingredients: 100 g bacon in dices 1 onion 1 clove garlic 3 eggs 1½ dl Isk 1 dl oatmeal 50 g shredded cheese 1 tbsp mustard ½ tbsp fresh thyme 350 g shredded squash pepper Make the pie dough and pre-bake it. Pie dough: 1 dl rapeseed oil ½ dl milk ½ tsp coarse salt 3 dl flour Stir together and put it in a well greased pie plate and pre-bake for 22 minutes at 200 degrees. Roast the bacon in a frying pan and put it on fat absorbing paper. Fry chopped onion and finely chopped garlic lightly in the bacon fat - do not let it get brown. Stir everything together except the bacon. Put it in the pre-baked crust and sprinkle the bacon on top. Bake for approx. 40 minutes at 200 degrees. We had an apple salad to go with the pie and figs for dessert. Danish

Every year I take seeds from lots of plants in the garden to sow the following year. I also take seeds from squash and that sometimes gives surprising results. Last year I had some small, round squash of the same coloring as the one in the picture, and I also had butternut squash. They must have cross-pollinated, and the result is this light green, striped butternut. We have tasted one of them, and it was delicious. A bit more dense in the "meat" than a normal green squash. We will have to see if it is  suitable for storage. I took seeds from  Hokkaido pumpkins as well, but they look as usual 😄 Danish

Rinse I2-14 figs and cut off most of the stems. Make  a couple of small holes in each fig using a toothpick or sharp fork (this will make the figs absorb the syrup), and put them in a cleaned 1 liter  glass jar. Boil a syrup: 4 dl water 400 g cane sugar juice from 1 lemon shredded lemon peel from  ½ lemon Pour the syrup over the figs and let rest until next day. Drain the syrup and pour it in a pan and cook to reduce the syrup a bit. Take off heat and add 1 dl brandy and 1 tsp Atamon and pour it over the figs. You may have to fill up with a little brandy. Close the jar. Let rest for at least 14 days before use. Danish

There are masses of blackberries, and there is a limit to how many I can use for jam and desserts. That is why some of them will be made into "healthy" candy . I blend ½ liter blackberries with  7 mint leaves and  ½ dl honey. Spread the pulp even on a silicone baking mat and let dry in the oven for 14-15  hours at 50-60 degrees. Make sure the fruit leather is dry - no damp patches. When the leather had dried, I cut it in 4 rows, rolled it up, and put it in a glass jar. Danish