In the sunny south, we were warned of wind, rain and general devastation for the weekend. And boy did it rain on Saturday. Fortunately, we were indoors at Shaftesbury Town Hall. A fair needs two things: stalls and buyers. So all we needed was buyers. Some brave souls made it. But we weren't surprised there weren't as many visitors as we would have hoped. Still, it wasn't a wash-out, but the fair packed up earlier than intended.
Sunday it was a different world. We were at the Artisan street market in Dorchester. The organisers decided there would be no stalls on South Walk under the trees, so they redirected all stalls to set up at both ends of South Street. There were a few small gusts of wind, but it was a reasonably calm day. We played it safe by not keeping the gazebo side walls up, in case they acted like a sail/kite in the stronger blows. Those stall holders who decided to back out because of concerns about the weather missed a good day. Plenty of sunshine and (from where I was standing) what seemed like the normal levels of footfall.
Back in the kitchen, it is still all go. Just produced even more boiled eggs for pickling (we buy at least 30 dozen a week), so the kitchen is more like a sauna when these are being processed. Yet more red onion chutney (some name it caramelised onion, while for others it might be named onion marmalade). A lot of onions cook down to a few jars. Not sure how many jars 32kg will make. Chutneys take about 6 weeks from cooking to be ready for eating; otherwise, the vinegar is still noticeable. So this batch will be ready for Christmas.
And, although I say it myself, we have just produced a rather gorgeous Apricot Jam. Jams are ready to eat the day after cooking. So once the labels have been fixed on the jars, they will be on the stall.
This weekend (Sat 31 Oct and Sun 1 Nov), we are in the rare and relieving position of having no events to attend. The kitchen does not stop with Piccalilli being prepared this weekend.
And if we are not at events, there are at least a couple of hours of peeling shallots for the pickling production line.
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