Yesterday evening we had friends around and roasted a half pig, it was such a beautiful sight and enjoyed by everyone who came along. Each person brought along a side dish and none of us really knew what the other would bring so that added an element of surprise too. The table was laden with food, drinks flowed nicely and all 6 of the children that were here managed to behave quite well mostly. The rain stayed away and although there was a slight breeze the weather was nice. I'm sure we'll have another pig roast (this was our second) or BBQ at some point this year as it's really nice to be able to enjoy an evening with great company. The only downside to last night was when hubby decided to have a quick dip in the pool and forgot to remove his full pack of cigarettes and lighter from his pocket, they're ruined but it was rather funny.
My garden is looking a little crowded, as admittedly I've not done any weeding for some time. But we are picking ripe cherry tomatoes daily and everything else looks well. Apart from the young onions that I grew from seed and the last chilli plants that went in as the dog has dug them up overnight in her attempt to stash leftovers from the pig roast! Poor Baba the Bulgarian mongrel is looking a little sorry for herself today and I can only guess that she may have eaten too much pork last night. Hopefully she'll perk up tomorrow and be back to her usual, happy self. Neighbours and friends have been giving us bags of cucumbers so we're eating a lot of salads.
Tomorrow we have to go and collect the barley from the village corporation that we ordered earlier in the year. We never know until it's been harvested how much we will get as you pay by the amount of land so some years the harvest is better than others. This year we have 2 decares of land and the harvest was 320 kilo's per decare, so we are collecting 640 kilo's of barley tomorrow which will help feed the pigs and horses over the winter months. There's still straw to order and maize to collect when it's ready too. We just need to sort out some storage for everything now.
I've already started on stocking the kitchen cupboards for winter but am finding it really hard to cook for just two of us, instead of 4, so the plastic freezer tubs are starting to be filled with things I've made that we can just reheat later in the year. Soon I'll be in preserving mode and I'm just waiting for the victoria plums to ripen fully before I turn them into jam. This year I will make less jam and simply freeze some of them for crumbles and puddings over the winter. I won't be making chutneys this year as we still haven't eaten all of the last batch I made. However, I will be turning a lot of the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines into sauces and soups again mmmmmm.
Well I'm off now to sort out leftovers for tea, feed the animals and spend a quiet night in front of the TV.
gawd! That pig looks great - I'm drooling. You have given me an idea for a post because our neighbours periodically drop by in the early hours with a freshly shot wild pig - but that's enough for now or it will spoil the story.
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