We picked and we pickled!

 We had a friend coming over for a vegan tea party in the afternoon so we were meant to be tidying up a bit, but somehow we got sidetracked into bottling vegetables from the garden. We'd planned to do the whole thing yesterday but discovered too late, after we'd started yesterday, that we should, in fact, have started the whole thing the day before (damn-no time machine- where's our friend Karl when we need him?) as after the gherkins have been sprinkled with salt they needed to be left for 24 hours, which meant we had to do it today. I guess that it would occasionally help to read through all the instructions ahead of time, but we never do AND WE NEVER WILL!

 Anyway, our seven year old did a great job pickling the organic gherkins that she grew herself- she was so proud! And then our other two pickled some home grown beetroots and purple carrots from the garden. The purple carrots are amazing; we'd definitely grow them again- they actually stained the children's tongues and teeth purple for a while after eating them! We also picked a batch of beans- I think you'll agree that they are very pretty beans!
  We managed to extract two pounds from our friend by getting her to buy two guesses at the name of the soft toy we got from Hillside Animal Sanctuary- it's a great idea: we paid them £5.00 for the soft toy which arrived with its list of thirty possible names and its ACTUAL name in a sealed envelope. Then we have to charge everybody we know £1.00 per guess. When all the guesses have been bought,the true name is revealed and the person who guessed the correct name wins the soft toy. We then have £30.00 for Hillside, out of which we may, if we choose, take back our £5.00, or just ask for another soft toy and do it all again. We've sold nine guesses out of thirty so far, so if anyone else out there in the U.K.wants to have a guess, let me know and I'll tell you which names are left!!

  After our friend went home we had Tomato and Pinenut Pasta- one of our favourites. It started out as an Amanda Grant recipe but according to the code of conduct adhered to by knitters ( I have this on good authority from Paula of funky knitting blog Purple Cricket) since we've made at least three changes to the recipe it must be considered ours by now! It looked strangely like octopus tentacles, but anyway, it was delicious and was that rare thing, a dish which everyone ate- ok, WELL ACTUALLY, someone left the tomatoes and  someone else left the pinenuts.. sigh.