Having been on holiday there is an abundance of fruit and vegetables

Back from holiday and we are welcomed by a glut of tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes and even apples. I have decided to do the from Spade on Monday eventhough it is a bank holiday, I suppose it is even nicer as that way the whole family can come.

Before Tina and her family set sail for the US , she let me harvest appleas from her garden and on the way there I noticed that the apples in behind St Luke's church are ready too so have decided to turn them into juice, (there is something special about the first juice of the year)
It should be nice to do for young and old, especially the tasting.
The pictures turned out to be a little pink as we were working under a red gazebo to protect us from the blazing sun,
            
After sending out an FB announcement that we would do a family event we had a wonderful turn out.
Lu, Francisco and Isobella, Karina and Urban, Melendra, Robin and Bridget, Suzie K. Vasey, Brian , Gray and Natalie, Lucy, Omer, Theo and Thomas, Akiko and Yosuka all showed up to turn the apples into delicious juice, and apple juice.  Although we had a lot of apples, with so many people coming to help, Mark and I went to pick apples from Githa's garden and later he took Akiko, Yosuka and Suzie across the street to pick the apples in the alley way

For lunch we made wraps filled with cream cheese,  courgetti spagetti, carrots and bean salad, lettuce and grated cheese, as it was  30degree C. too hot for cooking I think
           

Apple cider vinegar

As lots of apples have dropped of the cooking apple tree at my neighbours and the eating apples in the allotment, I have decided to make some apple cider vinegar with them.
I hope to have apple juice later in the month but for now I don't want to waste these windfalls.

I put some lids on top of the apples to stop them from floating and coming in contact with the air. I hope that the plastic has no effect on the outcome. We shall see in a few weeks time.

I did add some of the previous apple cider vinegar together with some honey so hopefully that gets the process going.

This is what it looks like on Wednesday 8th August

Is the stuff on the bottom the 'mother'?

I will have to wait and see at the end of the month if this is indeed the mother. By then I will be pressing apples again and make more of this amazing stuff.

Just back from holiday. Today is the 26th August and have tasted the vinegar and tasted lovely and fruity. Have composted the left over apples and made nearly 3 litres out of this batch. As I am planning to make another batch this week when apple pressing I will take some of this batch as a starter for more vinegar for the year ahead.

Making apple cider vinegar

Eileen gave me a whole lot of apples today, slightly blemished but still very nice.

Most of them, I washed, peeled, cored and cut in thin slices and have let in the sunshine to dry.

The cores, peel and bits of apple I could not use I have put in a container to make apple cider vinegar

I normally make it in autumn after harvesting and pressing apples, but it would be a waste not to make some vinegar. Good for cleaning as well as eating.