Raspberries

I have some in my garden.

Or had some. They didn't last long after they were picked.

I'm trying to establish them, but they keep growing through the fence to my neighbour's garden.

Weekend chores

We've been having such a rotten summer so far that my broad beans, which I usually pick and freeze before Christmas, are only just ready. The crop is fairly small too, because about half of the plants got amputated at ground level in a storm in September.

I picked what was there and ready yesterday, then podded them and froze them. It's always a bit dishertening when you start with a reasonably big pile of beans and end up with a reasonably big pile of pods:


and a couple of quite small bags of beans to freeze:


Pitting cherries is a bit better.



Mind you a fair number of them disappear into one's interior parts instead of into the freezer bag:


I think I pitted about 1.2 kg, and froze 900g.

The Spanish chorizo I started before I went to Adelaide did its thing happily while I was away, and I have these four sausages to take to Yoshio at work:


as well as another three for me to eat. Yoshio has been home to Japan with his wife and four kids for Christmas and is looking for some nice bento boxes for me while he's there. He's due back at work tomorrow, but has left the family in Japan for a few more weeks - how Mutsuko copes travelling with four small children plus the luggage they must require is beyond me.