Sunday, March 5

We thought that living in the country would give us better access to fresh produce but we had no idea that we would become so fed up with the bounty which has crossed our door these past few weeks. I used to look forward to the blackberry season and my efforts would generally give me few weeks of pleasure in enjoying the fruits of my labour. The inevitable scratches are a small price to pay.

Now, though, my small harvest pales into insignificance against the plethora of stuff which Is threatening to swamp us. Everybody seems to have a garden and they make it their mission to off-load their surplus to unsuspecting recipients. As newcomers to the town, we are fair game. We haven't learned how to say No yet.

Yesterday, we cooked up a whole bucket of plums to make Plum Sauce. After all the preparation, which took until after 9 o'clock, the recipe said 'Now cook for a further two hours. Seriously, we were hanging around until nearly midnight waiting for the stuff to cook. I never want to see another plum, yet today a stranger sidled up to Marilyn In church offering plums and Marilyn said, thank you, how kind.

Zucchinis are another thing. We've learnt how to cook Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Frittata and Zucchini Muffins and are now watching a pot of Zucchini and Pineapple Jam coming to the boil.

My humble, personally picked blackberries are over-shadowed by raspberries, thornless blackberries, bramble berries and something called Kellyberries ( a cross between blackberries and raspberries.

We've also made Lemon Butter and there's rhubarb in the fridge calling out to be dealt with.

Apart from the people who offer you stuff face-to-face, I'm told the really desperate ones just leave it on your door-step. Happily, Deloraine people don't usually indulge in that practice but the other day, we came home to a bag on the door-step containing Black Russian Tomatoes (see photo). This was a nice thought and we don't want to discourage things which are exotic, but maybe not so many plums and Zucchinis.