Plum Tart anyone ???

Hi

Harry has been back on that Trade me again buying up Agee jars. I know that we went through this phase last year and we have a cupboard full of large Agee jars but now it's the half jars that he is after. Those half jars are so handy for a small serve. The first of the jars duly arrived and I was instructed to make plum conserve to fill half jars in readiness for plum tarts LOL. He had been out collected some more plums off our trees and so I did as told and boiled them all down, added cup for cup of sugar, rapid boil for ten minutes and poured into our new half jars. Dad asked if it was plum jam but I'm calling it conserve just ready to spread on some sweet short pastry for a really quick dessert.

PLUM TIME

I reckon that plums on the whole are a pretty easy fruit to grow as they don't seem to get to much wrong with them. Dad had a whole heap of Billington plums this year that he has turned into jam that is now sitting in  my cupboards, One of the team brought in some Black Doris plums for us to try, meaty dark red plums, then Harry has been running around with Purple King plums for all to try, red skinned with juicy yellow flesh. Reminded Harry of when he was a child and he used to pinch the Purple King plums off the neighbours tree. We even managed to buy some Fortune plums the other day also with red skin and sweet yellow flesh, and they were delicious.  Luisa plums must be yet to ripen and are just gorgeous with meaty yellow flesh. Santa Rosa is a good plum to have as it's a good pollinator for many varieties of other plums.  Red skinned and yellow flesh.It's been a wet summer so far so everyone should have bumper crops to harvest and if you wanted to plant a plum tree or two as they usually need a mate, unless you get one of our double grafted ones with two varieties on the one tree. We have some great trees in the garden centre, excellent stocky plants!!!!

Then there shouldn't  be a problem planting at this time of year as there has been more than regular rain and dare I say it but Autumn is just around the corner.  If we don't have in stock the variety that you are after then just let us know and we will back order it for you. 

PESTO

We have been making a whole heap of pesto lately. It all started with an oversupply of parsley and I was thinking how could we use some of it up and suddenly remembered that I used to make a parsley pesto.  Pesto is pretty easy to make and great to have on hand, awesome with crackers and dips, have as a condiment with cooked breakfast, lunch and dinners, not to mention cooking with. Stuffed mushrooms are so easy to make with some bread crumbs and pesto all combined, topped with grated cheese and grilled. Push pesto under the skin of a chook and roast for something just a tad different. Stir spoonfuls of the stuff into mince and casserole dishes for delicious dinners.
I kinda guess amounts here being roughly 3 to 3 to 4 cups of green leaf to a cup of pine nuts. Other nuts can be subsitiuted and one of the guys at work suggested cashews and I have heard of skinned almonds  being used instead.

Take approx 3 to 4  cups of parsley leaves packed firmly
1 cup approx. of pine nuts
1 small jar capers rinsed
2 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 cup Parmesan cheese grated
Olive oil (I used one of Harrys tarragon flavoured ones)
Salt and pepper to taste
Throw all the ingredients into a whizz (blender) and whizz until fine, add the cup of grated parmesan Pulse and then whilst the blender is going, add olive oil down the chute until it all begins to stick to gather and go around as almost a thick liquid.  Keep refigerated in a small jar or sealed container and use as required.
Substitute the  Parlsey for Basil and omit the capers to make traditional Basil pesto

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