Its been a while...........

....in fact its been 4 months since my last post.  Since its been winter in Australia, you could be forgiven for thinking I've been in hibernation, but I have not been sleeping.

The precious lemon tree that we planted and nurtured has had a bumper crop, and the possums didn't discover it like last year when they chewed the skins off a dozen or so.  I was pleased not to have to juggle the netting and poles this year, but instead of possums there were gall wasps.  One fine cold morning, I took all the lemons off the tree, pruned it back to a stick, and burnt all the infected branches in the fire pit.  What to do with many kilos of lemons?  Preserve them.........

The recipe is Emmy's and involves coarse salt, lots of muscle-power, and some big jars.  This is the result of the first batch.

I've added some to the onions steaming under a slow-cooked lamb shoulder, and rubbed the meat with them too.  My friend Emmy, a culinary mastermind with a Turkish heritage, advises turning each jar upside down a few times through the first month they're stored, and topping up with extra lemon juice if the level settles too much.  

The next challenge was to turn the last of the quinces into something useful...........and I didn't have the heart to try jelly (all that straining was off-putting), so hunted out a recipe for quince paste.

I should have taken a photograph of the finished product because once we tasted it, everyone took a piece home, and its all gone!  Definitely worth repeating.

The Opus Gluei Poobahs have also returned this month, and we'd love to see what YOU've been up to over the winter (or summer).  Share your holidays exploits with us all.