This week’s hot weather and bushfire alerts have not done us any favours in the fruit and veg department with the hot dry winds scorching off the raspberries and the zuchinis not to mention that possums stripped the fig tree bare and managed to get under the net on the apricot tree and have a go at these.

So today we mounted a rescue effort harvesting any of the apricots that looked more than half ripe and stripping off the ones the possums had taken a bite out of. Fortunately my being slack about staking the tomatoes has saved them from the wind meaning we should get a few kilos in a week or two.

So what to do with a sudden influx of not quite ripe fruit – the best of the apricots went to jam and he rest to an asian style fruit and chili pickle – and is the result:

not bad for an afternoon’s work …