Yesterday, Tanya cleaned out the deep freeze in readiness for this years crops of fruit and produce. She picked and froze several packages of fresh dill to start things off. Found stuff we had forgotten.
She had bought some smoked prunes last year, we ate a few and froze the rest. Yesterday she made compote from the frozen prunes and dried apples. It has a wonderful flavour, just a hint of smokiness. Also she made compote from red currents and sour cherries. We'll be drinking compote instead of buying juice for a week or so.
She started a batch of strawberry jam and is finishing it off as I write. Not sure how many litres in a batch but about 5 I am guessing. When we come home in the fall, we will "repackage the jam into 2 litre plastic bottles to take to the kids. Lighter and less breakable than glass.
Masha will come to visit in a half hour. She and her Babushka will pick strawberries from out patch, (the jam is from some we purchased). I have hardly seen her for two weeks so a visit will be enjoyable.
Roman has been here all week and Lena is coming on the bus tonight. They are considering moving to ZV as Dnipro is just too expensive. Some of Tanya's connections are sure they can find Lena a job here and they can rent a better flat for 1/3 the money they pay in the big city.
Man, they smoke the weirdest things over there. I'm still burping up that smoked cheese.
ReplyDeleteThe harvest has started? Our crop isn't even in yet -- too bl***y cold!
ReplyDeleteSmoked prunes? How do you manage to get it into the pipe.
ReplyDeleteA bit of advice. Don't use plastic. The acid in the fruit causes the plastic to leach chemicals into the jam. That's why manufacturers use glass.
D - good point about the plastic, but if we use Coke bottles, any thing that can leach will have been by Coke which has a pH of about 4.0, I think. And it is only for the trip home.
ReplyDelete