Price Points: Strawberry pots

Strawberry pots | H is for Home

Our summer fruit harvest has been pretty good this year. We have a few strawberry plants that have produced lots of fruit – and now, dozens of runners between them. We don’t want to just cut them back and waste them. Also, you shouldn’t just keep the same strawberry plants, growing on the same plot (or in the same soil) year after year, as they accumulate viruses – and crops diminish.

About three years is the optimum life for a strawberry plant apparently, so we’re going to propagate a few over the coming weeks. We had a look at what the venerable Monty Don had to say on how to go about it – and it’s incredibly easy. You can never have too many strawberry plants because you can never have too many strawberries!

Here’s a trio of different strawberry pots – from less than a tenner to over £50 – which we’ve found that would be perfect for our allotment and garden…

  1. Large 45-litre plastic herb / strawberry planter / grow bag: £7.95, Amazon
  2. Terracotta strawberry pots: £35.00, Etsy
  3. Terracotta strawberry planter: £64.99, Crocus

Price Points: Fruit salad homewares

Fruit salad homewares | H is for Home

This run of sunny weather has seen us spending hours & hours in the garden each day. Pottering amongst the plants, al fresco lunching, reclining in deck chairs with cold drinks… oh, and doing some work of course.

It’s obviously had a big influence on this week’s Price Points post – bright, optimistic and fun.

Check out this cute selection of fruit salad homewares – and each one is under £30.00!

  1. Banana night light: £10.90, Amazon
  2. Sunnylife watermelon doormat: £29, Paperchase
  3. Outdoor garden pouffe – kiwi design by Fallen Fruits: £19.99, Selections

Price Points: Plum trees

Plum trees | H is for Home

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a bunch of saplings for sale outside the entrance to our local supermarket they were all priced up at £5.00 – bargain! I had a look at all the labels and amongst the apple, pear and cherry trees I spotted a single Victoria plum tree. I thought to myself that I’d return a bit later on in the day to buy it.

Needless to say, I popped back mere hours later and it was gone – I lost my chance! Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was back at the supermarket to pick up a couple of things and there were a couple of plum trees back in stock. I picked one out on my way in – I walked all around the shop with it – I wasn’t going to miss out again.

It said on the label that it’s self-pollinating (self-fertile), however, I did a bit of research online and apparently having other compatible plum trees nearby helps improve fruiting. ‘Compatible’ simply means another variety that flowers at the same time.

I’m torn between ‘Black Amber’ and the dual ‘Bleue de Belgique’/’Reine Claude d’Oullins’. The former only gets to 1 metre tall – perfect for a small garden like ours. However, the latter gives you two completely different varieties on a single tree; again, a good option for our limited space.

  1. Plum ‘Black Amber’ (mini fruit tree): £12.99, Van Meuwen
  2. Dual plum ‘Bleue de Belgique’ + ‘Reine Claude d’Oullins’: £17.50, Bakker
  3. Plum ‘Opal’: £24.99, Thompson Morgan

Redcurrant jelly

'Redcurrant jelly' blog post banner

Jars of home-made redcurrant jelly | H is for Home

July sees the start of our food harvesting and preserving season. Last week we made a delicious elderflower ice cream with our home-made elderflower cordial.

colander full of redcurrants picked on our allotment

This week, we’ve made some redcurrant jelly using a recipe from Cordon Bleu Preserving.

Washed redcurrants put into glass jars

We inherited half a dozen or so redcurrant bushes when we took on our allotment last year. On our last trip down there this week, the bushes were heaving with little red jewels.

Redcurrants cooked in lidded jars in the oven

It took the pair of us about two hours to pick about half of them. When we got home, we gave them a rinse – they barely filled our small colander!

Weighing sugar to make redcurrant jelly

Despite this, we kept back a couple of cupfuls (to go into a pie) before making rest into jelly… it actually made 8 jars.

Straining cooked redcurrants through a jelly bag

We know that redcurrant jelly is usually matched with lamb or game and a dollop or two can go into a gravy for extra flavour. We’ll have to look for some other good flavour matches…any ideas?

Jars of home-made redcurrant jelly

Redcurrant jelly

Cordon Bleu Preserving
Course Condiment
Cuisine British

Ingredients
  

  • Redcurrants
  • 800 g granulated or preserving sugar to each litre of juice made

Instructions
 

  • Gently rinse the redcurrants in a colander before carefully removing the stems and putting the fruit into Kilner jars
  • Firmly cover the jars with lids before putting them in to an oven at 300ºF/Gas mark 2 until the juice has run well
  • Remove from the oven carefully remove the lids and turn out the fruit into a jelly bag or muslin overnight
  • Measure the juice and take the correct proportion of sugar
  • Add the sugar to a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or jam pan and warm on a low heat
  • In a separate pan, heat the juice to boiling point (but don't allow to boil)
  • Add the juice carefully to the warm sugar stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved
  • Pour jelly at once into sterilised jars
  • Allow to cool before screwing the lids on firmly
Keyword currants, jelly, preserves, redcurrants