saturday garden journal and Foraged fruit pie

The garden has been so unproductive food-wise this year that I hardly know whether it's worthwhile planting any winter seeds. Not really surprising as we've had the wettest summer in a hundred years. We had some strawberries earlier in the year and two courgettes. The carrots didn't germinate and the few tomatoes that survived are still green, we lost the first batch in heavy rain. Apart from herbs we've nothing much else. Even the apples and gooseberries which are usually abundant have failed to produce one pie!

So we are cutting back the foliage. Trimming the vines...(when I don't get too distracted trying to weave vine wreaths). Cutting top branches from the plum and mulberry trees and the enormous honeysuckle. Hopefully reducing some of their shade will help next year when apparently the weather should statistically be  better. We also did a bit of sprucing up of garden furniture with recycled paint from here.

We didn't go entirely pie-less though, thanks to a bit of foraging. We found a massive apple tree in a field near Peachcroft farm. The  branches bowed down with fruit were hanging over onto common land. And we spotted some big juicy blackberries in the woods. I added a few strawberries and some maple syrup to sweeten because I've stopped using agave syrup since reading this article. I made a pie with simple shortcrust pastry served with yoghurt, one of my favourite fruity deserts.

Maybe this fallow year will do the garden good. Help it to rest up a bit and renew itself with increased vigour next. We never tire of it's lush greenness and the wild life it homes...although A wasn't very happy with the little one that had a gulp of his coffee before making a speedy exit. 

Comparing garden journals at Ginny's today