Thinning Fruit

There is a phrase about how you should get your enemy's to thin your fruit.

But mine are busy, so I have to do my own. 

It's been interesting this year seeing a new area become heavily fruitful for the first time. When I used to graft a few apple trees (something I need to get back into) I put some trees down in the coppice.

This year they've cropped really well. In fact they've cropped just too well. I waited for the June drop, but it just never happened, so last week I took to knocking some fruit off the trees. It always feels wrong, but I know it's for the greater good. 

I love being able to have different areas for fruit growing, all with different microclimates and quirks. These seem to have faired much better this year with being a bit of open light and air, unlike the orchard which is tucked away a little bit. 

Lovely to see these trees to start coming into their own. Hopefully this should help fill the pantry for winter if they get to ripen. 

Who else as thinned fruit this year?

Dehydrated Blackcurrants

One of my absolute favourite preserved items lately has been the super intensely favoured dried blackcurrants. 

These have the unique blackcurrant flavour but condensed down. We use them each year in baking now, they've become a store cupboard ingredient rather than using sultanas or raisins. 

They take an age to dry though. Probably nearly two days in the dehydrator. The video above shows the process I went through. Cleaning them is often the hardest bit, but I discovered I could winnow them once dry, using an old bouncy castle fan I own. It worked well and blew out all the bits we didn't really want to store. 

Do you dehydrate blackcurrants? 

What's your favourite store cupboard ingredient you make yourself?

 

A Few New Tools

As I go deeper and deeper into making small batches of my products I'm always looking for ways to either speed up the process or to make it easier on myself. 

One thing I spend a lot of time doing is sanding. I tend to use two orbital sanders for this and in all honesty it can be a little tough on my hands. I'm either holding the sander or holding the wood. 

So I had a think about how I could improve this process. I knew a bench mounted disc sander would be the right answer, as well as a bobbin sander for all the curves I cut on my work. 

First Hive Inspection With Both Daughters

Last weekend we had a break in the weather and decided to quickly get outside and do an inspection on our two hives. 

I was keen to make sure the bees had settled into each hive from the two swarms we caught last year. 

The girls were really keen to come and help (the boy not so much). So they donned their suits and came with me. 

Have a watch of the video to see how they get on. 

It was a really lovely thing to share with them. Both very enthusiastic and really keen to learn. 

Adjustable Sloe/Berry Scoop

So today I came across someone who had a carbon copy of my gooseberry scoop on Instagram. That I'm not too worried about, it was going to happen and they're not selling them. The bit that annoyed me was the fact they denied that it was a copy, saying they saw something on holiday last year, but could show me no pictures. I only asked for  tag in the video so people could find me. I understand that people will make their own, I'm fine with it, but say where you got the idea rather than passing it off as your own. 

There are also 2 3D printed designs out there that very closely resemble my design. They have given the plans away for free, so they don't really benefit from it much.

I'm tempted to make a video showing how to make mine, as people that will, will do it anyway, maybe making the design have a creative commons licence, so I can still build them but morally others shouldn't do it for profit. Not sure, willing to take advice. I doubt a patent is worth it, and it'll probably only cause me headaches and paperwork in the long run. 

Anyway, on that note I thought I'd share the prototype for an adjustable berry scoop, with sloes in mind really. By sharing it here I know people can copy it, but at least the original idea is mine. I had considered it when making the other scoops, but it takes longer to build and is heavier.