The wheelbarrow fairy finds the worksurface

Today the wheelbarrow fairy lost her tractor driver.(Ok so she can drive a tractor but not ALL the tractors) He had real work to do! So she found things to do instead.
Fairy tried to find the worksurface in the kitchen that was covered (yes I mean covered..as in no surface visible) in fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes one side..grapes the other with a fair smattering of courgettes, onions, eggplant etc. So the first job was to round up the tomatoes and the onions and get started on the pasta sauce.

Ok, so I took a picture of the onions all chopped up ready to go...what can I say? I like onions?

And one of the few costs of tomato sauce is tomato puree just to give it some body..and I can't even manage to throw the tubes away without cutting them open. Look at that lovely thin metal you get with the copper tones. Perfect for a bit of crafting or card making! Tomato scented xmas card anyone? Turn it upside down on a tea towel and use an old pen to push a design in...very artistic :-P

Ah now this is a picture of the dehydrator tray with...and this is strange..chewed up kitty kibbles. The cats crunch on their crunchies and they leave little bits in their bowls that they won't eat. I wondered if I moistened them if I could make a giant dog biscuit or re make kittykibble lumps. This was an experiment that went wrong. And it made the kitchen smell of cat food. Unusual but not a success. But the dog thought it was great and nearly bowled me over trying to sniff at the results!! Either that or it smelled like cat breath!!

Oh dear lord more veg on the worksurface..but they have been coralled into a bowl for the time being. They are the basis for rattytool tomorrow. With extra for the freezer and another day! Mainly because the top broke off one of my pepper plants so I had to use the peppers!

Ah a carrier bag full of grapes..and there's still more on the vine! So I offered some to our american friends who also like canning (I did try to beg some jars but it didn't work!) and there may be an amish cookbook in it for me!! Move the love around and pay it forward:D

Thats the baggies of tomato sauce waiting to go into the freezer...standing up and pegged together so they don't turn into a weird shaped mass that gets stuck.

This is my preserving pan (it came from a charity shop ) and its gotta lotta grapes in it!! It smells yummy :) and it is now my favourite soft drink of choice! There's bound to be pictures tomorrow of jars and canning fun!!
I know its all a bit repetitive...I guess thats my life..its like nature..its cyclical. Goes in a cycle. This time of year is preserving time for the winter and harder times ahead. I suppose I'm very old fashioned. I'm gonna blame my mom and my great grandmother. And my dad too. All hoarders for times when it 'might come in handy'. And I love learning household skills. Like canning. Next is pressure canning so I don't need the freezer so much. First find a pressure canner in the UK! And more jars...whatever OH thinks there can never be enough jars!!
Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about my dad:)

A wheelbarrow fairy full of apples.

The bloomin wind has blown alot of the cooking apples off the tree and so the fairy had to go collecting windfalls! And they have to be cooked quick before the bruises become rotten. Ah the life of a fairy is always busy!

As DS has been eating all the fruit leather (ok its not just him...its me too) decided that this batch of apples was destined to become leather (or roll ups, depends where you are) This is what the fruit puree looks like after a day in the dehyrdator. Just apples and sugar (and not too much sugar as it concentrates as it dries) Then snip snip with the kitchen scissors into fairy sized mouthfulls and we're done! Perfect, vaguely healthy snack food for bloggers and teenagers.

And here is the leather all jarred up and ready to munch. And yes, those are coffee jars (the coffee only bought when on special offer!) As we know I am a jar addict and you should see my stash of used and ready top be used again jars...no I'm not gonna go take a picture...they're in the shed and its chilly!

And just when you think there can't be many more windfalls, the wind blows some more. So, quarter box yesterday...and another full basket today! So todays full basket can go to EX...he can have the apple runs :-D Honest I'm a nice person...generous to a fault!!! Now off to figure out what should be written in a letter giving notice for a job for a friend! See..I am nice really:-P
*Update* OH just tried some apple leather 'I could resole my shoes with this' then he had a chew..ooh this is nice...takes another piece! Another convert to the appley goodness!!

The wheelbarrow fairy needs clean overalls

Today the wheelbarrow fairy decided to take a look at her stored marrows and pumpkins...it would seem she should have done so earlier, as there were 2 pumpkins gone icky (technical term) and alot of yellow marrows gone slushy! The fairy thought it would be a good idea to carry a whole tray of slimy marrows out to the compost..lifted them up and leant the tray against herself as she carried it...then she felt a moistness...OH DEAR LORD! Runny, smelly marrow slop running down her front! GROSS! Definitley a clean overall moment!!

After the marrow incident..and with clean trousers and shirt (yes the ooze seeped through my overalls!) it was potato picking time again. Below is the row of potatoes ready to be picked. See the hedgerow in the distance? Thats how far the row goes. All picked by hand into little red baskets, then tipped into bags and collected when we're done. Thats alot of bending and once again my legs feel old! I'm fairly sure by the time we've picked the whole field my legs will be used to the different stretch and not hurt anymore..then it will be time for another stretch! Celeriac next. That makes my chest muscles ache as they're tough to pull and take two hands! But each veg has its own moment and its own joy.

And that is the best thing about potato picking. The potato shed starts to look fuller. These have got to last me all winter to sell and eat so the more the merrier! And i do love my potatoes:) preferably with alot of butter:D and of course as chips! And baked..and in a gratin..in fact..I'll eat them most ways:D

After all that work it was time to go 'shopping'. Ok so I walked round the fields with my knife in my hand looking for veg to add to tea. Pasta primavera..well, the cheapskate version! On my little walk around i found..3 courgettes, a few carrots, teeny tiny leeks and some mini brocolli! Lots of lovely, free, colourful veg. With the addition of pretty aldi pasta (32p worth) and aldi cream cheese with garlic (53p) then a tbsp of cheapy parmesan (20p)...a total of £1.05 for three of us with tomatoes on the side!! I do love growing food:D

The wheelbarrow fairy does a good deed

Today was a good deed sort of day for the wheelbarrow fairy. My friend has just had his fire re-opened, and he is living in poverty, beyond heat or eat! So I gave him a fire set..including a poker, some coal and firelighters. He won't be so cold this winter. Last year he was sat in jumpers, hats and blankets as he daren't put his heating on. Thats no way to be in the 21st century. And every thursday I feed him his tea and try to get him to take veg home to eat. As he points out, he can't afford to put the cooker on either, but I try. And at least I know he's had a hot meal once a week!
Anyway... homemade chips for tea...look at them waiting to be cooked..as we grow potatoes, chips are the ultimate cheap food. Icelands greggs sausage rolls...£1.50 so thats 4 fed for £1.50 plus oil and heat!! Cheap and cheerful I can do...not too sure about healthy though.

Amish rhubarb pie. Squidgy and sweet and unhealthy and sooo tasty! Well it has fruit in it! How bad for us can it be?! And we picked potatoes today and we need good old fashioned sustanance. And its..yes you guessed it...CHEAP! And the oven was on:-D And yes, the fairy got the first bit...warm from the oven:-D Woohoo!!

Dehydrated tomatoes - aren't they a lovely colour. And they are so sweet. I know they are supposed to be for storage, but I do like to test them as I go along. At least thats one more thing cleared from the counter in the kitchen, although there are still more tomatoes, but just one big bowl now. I might try blitzing some to make tomato powder, we shall see. And the wilting veg from the bottom of the fridge has been made into soup base and frozen. I do hate wasting celery! Trouble is I'm the only person who likes it as it is, so it will be hidden in soups and stews. What they can't see they don't complain about. Thats how I stretch a pound of mince to at least 8 portions. Oats as filler, at least as much veg as meat, and a good portion of soya mince mixed in. Not one of the menfolk I feed has ever complained or even noticed! Then if you mix any leftovers with some mash and some peppery seasoning it makes great pasty filling..although DS has pointed out its difficult to find the meat in my pasties he always eats them!!

Wheelbarrow fairies soup kitchen

Well, this was yesterdays lunch...cheese and potato pie. Now I love cheese and potato pie...its simple and filling and comfort food at its best. But it made me think. This is poverty food isn't it? Leftover mashed potatoes, leftover ends of cheese, seasoning. It's like soup for me...it costs very little as we grow so much veg, and so poverty food as it goes on for days for very little.
I had a look online at the list of things that class you as not living in poverty. I think it was on the BBc website. I suppose I wasn't oversurprised to find that we live in poverty. I know we don't always have what we want. And we all have a big long list of 'things' we'd like.
But there, thats me off again...me and the other 50% of the UK eh?

Outside dad's house there's a grapevine. It used to live in the greenhouse till it got dismantled. Now it grows over the trees. Most years dad used to cut it back at the wrong time of year and complain that there were no grapes. This year, as I was too sad, it got left. This year there are MASSES of grapes! So the purple grape juice production line has started...I think we've got 8 pints so far canned and pretty. The second batch has a secret ingredient...ok not so secret if I tell you!! Elderberries. Up the vitamin c content...and lovely deep colour but not too much flavour! Been drinking it every morning with brekky! Much nicer than orange juice:) And it must be 1 of the 5 a day?! Then there's the stewed apple...in with the oats:) I like to think of it as a good Amish breakfast!! Well...I like the dresses and i can dream.

Elderberries. Lovely, finger staining secret ingredient! sadly it's close to the end of the season but I'll try to get enough to colour the next batches of grape juice...there really are alot of grapes!

The glass of grape juice I'm drinking right now..ok it's not breakfast...but I think it may be addictive:D

And here we have the reason I never have any money!! I have a jar addiction! Or at least thats what OH thinks! I save up... I buy jars! Lovely proper canning jars...good for years to come. It's an investment in my future! Best excuse I can think of..or shall we just call it my hobby?! And they will all be filled with grape juice as the grapes ripen!! YUM!
Oh and the wheelbarrow fairies soup kitchen? Well, when I got divorced the first time..the judge asked my ex if there was anything good he could say about me...he thought for a while and then said...' She makes good soup'. All this veg, and all these people with not much money..I thought I should open a soup kitchen!

Wheelbarrow fairy and the train

Sometimes a fairy needs some downtime....and so she flits to her favourite period in history and becomes someone else for a day.....

This time...in my infinite wisdom, i thought I'd go with ragging my hair...well..interesting results! The dress was my grandmothers maternity dress or so my mom believes. But at least I don't need industrial underwear to wear it!! OH looking as lovely as every!

Oh my..even closer! That is one big bust going on there....

Look at Sister Mary Klaus, a little less shy, trying to help the yanks fix their vehicle. What a beauty...and a real bringer of smiles to many people!

My what a coy little smile on a train! Who let that suspicious nun on a train anyway??

Lovely , lovely steam trains:D

Ok, who gave the nun field glasses? Now that does look a little suspicious! Oh right, she likes to birdwatch?!