Tuesday 12th October 10

A much better day than yesterday, much less to do although I was just as busy.  I did the usual round of emails etc in the morning, including answering a composting question from Singapore, and other various things... always interesting, although time consuming.

Before lunch I did a quick bit in the garden and again afterwards.  Later, I went to Country Fresh as Gill wanted to make some tomato soup, requested by the children.  As well as a selection of fruit and veg, I brought back a single sack of goodies for the latest compost heap.  One of the more time consuming jobs in the garden was to reclaim a 'turf wall' I built about 2 or 3 years ago, made from turf out of a skip, and these had rotted down to a lovely loam.  I got 5 or 6 sacks of loam, maybe 20 or 30 kg each, which I'll use next spring to make potting compost, mixing it with leafmould and rich compost.

Even later, I collected a large number of windfall quinces from the tree above the garage, which has had a good crop this year.  I'm hoping to make membrillo, a way of preserving the quince flesh, which my friend Florencia told me about.  What a palaver!  First I washed the quinces and carefully cut them in half... not easy as they are really tough.  Then each half was cut in half again, and then each of those cut again, into eighths, to allow the woody core and seeds to be cut out.  I think I spent close on two hours doing all this, and put all the washed pieces into the preserving pan on the woodstove to bring them up to the boil.  The next part of the job I'll do tomorrow.