Picture(s) of the day....

[Peter.N.]

They had to strengthen the river bridge coming into Charmouth, quite a big job, if they had brought it a few years later the bypass would have been built so saving a considerable amount of money, but they obviously needed it then.

Its now fed by about 100 acres or maybe more of solar panels - I bet they didn't see that coming.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Got two carrier bags full of pears off the tree yesterday, won't bother to post pictures, I think you all know what pears look like. What's the best way of using them up, nobody wants to take them off my hands and I can't eat them all.

I remember Gibbo posting this up, and I have often thought there is such a lot of waste of surplus fruit from the gardens of the UK, plums, cherries, pears, apples.

BBC breakfast thus morning featured a project in Hungerford which turns surplus apples and the odd pear from gardens into juice/pasturised and bottled and a shelf life of around 18 months.

http://myapplejuice.co.uk/

The project seems to be working, but you provide the fruit, they juice it, put it in a nicely labelled bottle, and you then pay £2.50 for 75cl of Juice. At those prices its a project which is being funded by the well-heeled i would have thought! Bit of a faf but you could cut out the middle man press, juice, pasturise, bottle and label yourself if you could be bothered!

"We started this community juicing service 7 years ago, and are hoping to significantly increase the volume we press...The charge is £2.50 for each personally labelled 75cl bottle."

REgards Neil

[Peter.N.]

It's obviously caught on then! We have a huge Bramley tree, the only fruit that seems to grow well here, although when we lived in Kent you could grow anything!

We try to preserve some, the wife freezes a little of the produce but there is far more than we can handle, we have tried storing them in boxes wrapped in paper but not many survive. My grandmother used to store them in the Anderson shelter, they kept well there.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Of course the chapter and verse of old country communal apple pressing and cider making is told by Jack Hargreaves here from 8.00 onwards. No money changes hands of course. The first bit of the programme is about freeze branding of New Forest ponies.

Daily Motion:Out Of Town With Jack Hargreaves - Ep 22

Regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

We used to have a farmer that had a 'communal' apple pressing about a mile away. He made some lovely ciders including his 'vintage' range including brandy matured in spirit barrels.

I bought his Rayburn when he replaced it and about 1970 and we had it for many years.

I remember Jack Hargreaves, we got 'southern' TV when we lived in Kent.

Peter

[mickthemaverick]

I have the full boxed set of Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves. He used to be a real favourite of mine because of his fishing tales. He was also on the panel of "How?" for his knowledge of country ways.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I have the full boxed set of Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves. He used to be a real favourite of mine because of his fishing tales. He was also on the panel of "How?" for his knowledge of country ways.

I loved his programmes too. He probably started off with one called "Country Boy" which was right up my street. Youtube doesn't have much but Daily Motion has virtually the lot superb stuff, and you do get the occasional laugh with his delivery.

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/jack%20hargreaves

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Jack ditched Sing-a-long-a-Max for the theme tune to "Out of Town"



and replaced it with the classical guitar piece "Recuerdos de la Alhambra",



I'll give him a thumbs up for that!

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I'll give him a thumbs up for that!

Regards Neil

Me too!!

[myglaren]

Agreed, vast improvement.

[Gibbo2286]

I've still got a lot of those pears, frankly they're not very good to eat, pretty tasteless. My neighbour picked a few from his side of the fence and I gave a carrier bag full to an old friend, neither have said anything positive about them.

Chain saw's coming out when the leaves fall off so there'll be a space in that part of the garden.

[Gibbo2286]

We saw Max Bygraves at the Bristol Hippodrome years ago he introduced a new comedian who stole the show, one Freddie Starr

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fr ... RM=WRVORC

[mickthemaverick]

Thoroughly enjoyed that video Gibbo, thanks for putting it up. He was magic!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just in case the scenery of the Norwegian Fjords becomes a bit boring, there's always the electric go kart track on board to keep you amused.




Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Ok so I missed it by 3 but as I had it ready I may as well put up this rather boring pic to celebrate 400 posts!!