I managed to harvest a lot of produce yesterday so today was to be a day at home, cooking.

I brought home a lot of courgettes, of course, some beetroot and another bag of little apples. I followed the advice of Bob Flowerdew who said – thin the apples on the branches, go and have a cope of tea and when you come back to the tree, thin some more. I did just that and the result was a full carrier bag of reasonable little green apples – perfect for making jelly.

I was reminded also yesterday morning by my friend that she just finished my jar of garlic jelly. I quite forgot that I made it last year so this glut of little apples was just on time.

I used the recipe for chilli jelly from my favourite book of preserves and use crushed garlic instead of chillies. The result is delicious.

The next on the list were the courgettes, apart from those I also picked some french beans and cauliflower, so I decided to make Piccalilli. This time the recipe is exactly as it appears in the book. Of course I had to start yesterday in the evening, soaking the veg in brine. It is quite a lengthy job but well worth it. Everybody says that my piccalilli is much better than the bought one.

It took a bit of organising to fit it all into one day; the courgette chutney needed to start with sprinkling the sliced courgettes with salt and draw the water out but as one lot was cooking the other was waiting to be rinsed and drained. Beetroot was cooked last night and peeled so all I had to do was to make the chutney. These two were made using the recipes I already used, they’re very popular so I didn’t see any reason to look for new ones.

All in all I made 26 jars of preserves, managed to run out of turmeric (fortunately a nearby corner shop sells it) and the hose smells like an oriental spice stall.