country matters

Little mother earth I am not! I like to think of myself as well-schooled in all country matters but I am not prepared when it comes to the crunch. I have stock-piled jam jars all year long in preparation for the annual harvest of crab apples from our French garden. The tree is a gift from Vicky, designed to provide shade in the front but, something clearly went wrong with the main stem, because it stopped growing at about five feet. No shade perhaps but masses of beautiful red-skinned sharp little apples destined to drip through muslin stretched from the legs of an upended stool and be transformed into fabulours jelly.

Now what? High winds last night, knocked quite a few off their perch and the fact is that they will not survive another two weeks before they are anywhere near their waiting jam jars.

So - think, think, think. Small fridge freezer, few plastic boxes. What to do? Salvation comes in stewing them, just a bit to reduce their volume and then putting them into hastily purchased sealable plastic freezer bags. Cram them in the space available and, swith a bit of luck, the interrupted jelly making process can continue when we return from foreign parts. Watch this space to find out whether it worked.