I used up some of my bargain car boot sale limes on making lime chutney, but have been searching for a spicier Indian style lime pickle recipe. The problem I've been coming up with is that most of the recipes involve leaving the pickle in full sunlight for several days, fine if you live on the Indian sub-continent, but a bit more difficult during your typical English summer.

We're occasional Sunday morning visitors to a local car boot sale, we can't go that often because we end up buying too much stuff.
One of the stalls which is worth visiting sells vast quantities of cheap fruit and veg, there's never much choice and it has to be eaten quickly, but it's a good place to pick up a bargain. This weeks haul was 15 bananas for a pound and a crate of limes for £1.50 (45 - I counted them).

This was a nice quick easy recipe to make to use up the last of the gooseberries.
I only made about half of quantity of the recipe, as the gooseberries in the garden were rapidly being eaten by wasps, and I'd used up a lot making a delicious summer pudding using only gooseberries - highly recommended, if a bit pale looking.

The gooseberries in the garden came into season a few weeks ago, so in between showers of rain I dashed out and picked the biggest and best for making jam.

I wasn't totally sure about Elderflower Cordial I made a month ago, at the time I had said I thought it tasted too sweet and needed a bit of tartness. After a bit of experimenting with adding lemon juice I decided to go for it and add citric acid to the whole lot.

After making Rhubarb Schnapps six weeks ago (see here for the rhubarb schnapps recipe) I've been popping under the stairs every few days and giving it a good shake. It's been great to watch the colour change, and finally yesterday I got to strain it and see it in all it's glory.

It was supposed to be the first cricket match of the year on Sunday, but it was raining in the morning so the pitch was too wet. However, the sun came out in the afternoon and we went off (with stepladder) to pick elderflowers, intending to make cordial later that day.