Hester Winterbourne

I have turmeric in a pot as a houseplant just for fun, and every year it dies down in early spring and then I think it's had it.  It's only just in the last week or so come back up. I sometimes think it's almost "summer deciduous", but I can't decide if it is cumulative heat that brings it back to life or day length.

If freezing buns/baps/rolls/cobs/local term of your choice I always slice them first as they thaw quicker and it prevents any nasty accidents when tempted to slice them before they are quite soft...  When freezing sliced bagged loaves as others have noted it's important to give them space while freezing so they don't deform - the slices will come apart much easier even whilst frozen if they are as flat as possible.  But once they are frozen they are pretty robust and I put them vertically in the bottom of the freezer to make it easier to see and extract them.

Probably Rouen, though it's interesting he hasn't got a collar.  He's probably not pure bred.  Some Aylesbury ladies would be nice for him.

I would suspect if the traditional recipe is for a clear jelly, there's a reason for that.  Maybe the spruce tips add a bitter flavour... but I don't think that's related to why the jam didn't set.  But I know there are some fruits that stop gelatin jelly from setting, so then again...

But was going to add that sloes may grow in your region so that could be another source of high-pectin fruit to amend this jam with.  Also I have found that hawthorn sets really well.

I don't bother with either!  I do tend to freeze the fruit because I have huge quantities and don't always have time to make jam as soon as I harvest.  Some of the flower ends do rub off once the berries are frozen.  But they seem to disappear once they are cooked, whether that's in jam or a crumble.

There are prostrate varieties of rosemary, maybe you have one of those?  If the leaves themselves all look healthy I wouldn't worry too much.

PS "edit" is hidden behind the three dots to the top right of your post.

Seriously though, in this country if you live in a rural area it's not uncommon to have public footpaths across your land and sometimes very close to your house.  I guess people just get used to it.  Your visitors probably don't come "all the time" in reality, they are just trying to assert their custom.   I'd be friendly.  If they turn out to be nice people and you make friends, you won't mind them dropping by and they will be courteous about it.  If it turns out you don't have much in common you can probably find subtle ways to discourage them or at least find a boundary that they don't cross - maybe make a path up the other side of the stream?

Be naturists?

I don't think it would make it more than a couple of feet without coming up for air.  BUT, the risk with surrounding it with lawn is that you mow off the runners and don't spot them, so it gets further than if it was surrounded by something nice and soft like mulch and you could pull up the shoots every time it made a break for freedom.

A variation on this subject... Last year when I harvested my garlic, I found I still had some shrivelled bulbs from the previous year in the veg rack.  Some had shrivelled away to nothing but some had green shoots.  So I thought I may as well give them a chance and planted them out.  They grew, but spindly, and have stayed spindly through the winter and this spring.  At the weekend I noticed they were starting to fall over and look like they had done growing, although the shop-bought plants planted in autumn are not ready yet.  (I had such a poor crop last year I ate them all and bought fresh stock.)  So I pulled these little spindly things up before they got lost.  Each one has formed a single round bulb about the same mass as a decent clove. Only one has made a single side-clove. So I'm ten cloves ahead for my autumn planting!