Friday 24 August 2018

Some fruit trees and a puppy picture

Hello All
Thank you for your thoughts on how I might sell our excess produce. I am still unsure what to do. I was excited when I heard that the local council has an open market produce day at the end of next month, but the stalls are £35 !!
Anyway there is still time to decide. In the meantime I will try to improve our roadside signs and carry on processing what I can. This is taking up a huge amount of time, but it would be criminal to let anything go to waste.
The fruit trees are exceptional this year.
 Here is one of our twelve apple trees, a Bramley

 And one of our two Victoria Plums (with a couple of Marjorie seedling plums hanging down in front of me like a pair of clackers - remember them?)
 One of our ten Damsons
 Our Leon Millet grape


The Medlar

And most exciting of all, for the first time...Peaches! (Red Haven)
Hope this doesn't sound like gloating, I'm just so pleased!
Extra busy weekend as twenty or so folks descend on us, most camping or caravaning with just a couple or so on the house. Copious amounts of baking etc done before hand , much by my youngest daughter and her daughter, so that we can all enjoy ourselves. This is easy peasy after the big party we had in July with well over a hundred and thirty odd tents!
I still haven't taken a picture of the new family dogs to put on the blog, perhaps I will remember to do so this weekend.
Here is one photo I DO have. This is Hattie. This was taken two months ago when she was sixteen weeks old. She is my eldest granddaughter's dog (company for her yellow Lab, Coda) Hattie, who  has a delightful personality,  is a Bernese Mountain dog and is going to be HUGE.
It is getting late so will close for now and hope you in the UK are keeping as warm as possible on this cold Bank Holiday!
Love Gillx

Wednesday 8 August 2018

Where to sell...car Boot or Farmers market?


Hello All
I'm looking at those fruit/veggies that I have a glut of and want to ensure there is no wastage.
In a few weeks I will have huge quantities of damsons, apples, plums, beetroot, blackberries and spinach and other sundry stuff.  I will be making copious amounts of wine and preserves, but there is only so much jam a family can eat ( not so sure that is true of the wine!) So I am planning on having a go at selling our excess. The door sales aren't anywhere near as popular as they used to be, possibly because of the road getting much busier and people not wanting to stop in such traffic. I have bought some new jam jars so that stuff is up to scratch. Second hand , i.e re-purposed, jars will do US nicely,  but I am told that I can't use these to sell.
So, okay then, where to sell? I am told that Farmers markets are good and interested in such produce and there is one in Belper, which is only 4 miles away. There is also a large Car Boot at Tansley, near Matlock which is approx. 8 miles away and has a greater footfall.
I will also have honey and wax to sell and am planning on using up some of my huge fabric stash for tote bags and veggie bags. ( as I am typing this I keep thinking of other things I could take along)
What do you think then?
I would love to hear your views
For now
Gillx