Mandy's Blog – Apples!!
Alison Owens
As you all know by now I love my garden very much and it has a huge influence on me, I walk through it to go to the workshop several times a day. I find spending time in my garden is good for my soul, pure escapism, especially working in my lovely greenhouse.
My love of making things isn’t limited to my workshop, it extends to my kitchen, where I love baking and making jams and chutneys.
I harvest apples and also a small amount of crabapples from my small tree which makes enough chilli jelly to last the year and we love it. I use it to compliment cold meats at Christmas, it goes really well with chicken and turkey. I use any classic crabapple or apple jelly recipe and add chopped chillis at the last minute to give it a bit of spice!.
I also collect and save lovely glass jars, throughout the year, and cover the tops with scraps of fabric. But this year I came up with the idea of a Redwork cover. It only took an evening to stitch. I experimented with the edging and decided a blanket stitch using double thread worked the best and I was brave when I cut close to the edge to create the scallop.
My love of making has even rubbed off on my son, who is always brewing some concoction and making sour doughs! He’s coming home this weekend to pick the rest of the apples, then will are take to our local apple press, who will bottle the juice for us; ready to store in the freezer to drink whenever we fancy.
I love being busy! x