Marmalade and cheese

Marmalade Garden II
Sunshine at last and an afternoon to go and work in the garden. Running a business from home 7 days a week leaves little time for ironing school uniforms let alone time to spend weeding your garden.
The job outstanding from last week was to deal with all the branches we cut off. Smaller items were shredded and some sawing took place this afternoon, preparing some small logs for Mildred the Rayburn. We laughed together at the thought that we must be mad to be cutting our own wood and using small branches to keep warm but checked our words immediately against the commitment we had made to use whatever resources the site gave us.
We could just bunch them up and take them to landfill but that means taking it all through the shop and the idea of the garden is that we would use what is available in the microclimate and increase soil fertility using compost and bokashi. The work gets you warm quickly and provides an excuse to sit down in the afternoon sun with a cup of tea and a slice of slightly out of date cake.

Once the hard landscaping has taken place and the woodash added to the compost heap and fruittrees, the garden will start to open up and provide surprise after surprise. Bulbs are poking through the earth and the birds are singing, even pairing up on occassions which is far too early. I also hung a fatball in the tree that is being feasted on, not that I manage to spot a bird doing that as I am usually inside.

The waste routine continues as the collection every week is kept to a minimum: recycling paper, boxes get donated and collected, plastic bags reused and brought back. Food waste gets devoured by 3 hungry boys who currently shout ( what cheese again!), and there is a promise that the cheesemountain is reducing.

I have grated the remaining cheese and will be keeping it in the freezer to make cheese on toast, or sprinkle over pasta or other dishes. I also made a note to keep enthousiasm in check next December when I order cheese for the festive season.

The shop is quiet, guess many people are feasting on what they were given as food goodies and others are jogging and on a diet, hence the out of date cake.
Fickle lot these customers, off cake and cheese at the moment but fresh fruit sales are up and celery is in demand.

The last remaining seville oranges have been donated to a willing soul who will turn it into marmalade to be sold at the church fete later in the year.