Chutney making

I do like to try new things and sometimes I like them and other times I know I wont be doing it again (I am talking hobbies here nothing carnal, if you dont mind). A couple of years ago I did a one day stand up comedy workshop and I loved it, though it was very hard and out of a class of 12 maybe three were funny, I wasnt one of them, its about more than a quip that makes people chuckle its about timeing and I didnt have it, and as with things I find hard,like motorway driving and backing school books, If i never quite master them I do just move on (without any feelings of guilt or feelings of having failed, surely thats a success in itself?) anyway last year I tried horseriding and It was ok, but I have no idea why anyone would want to take it up, I came away smelling of horse and I wonder maybe if the horse came away smelling of me and equally sickened.

This year I at the Manchester Food Festival I signed up for the "Chutney making workshop", it was based in one of the large tents in Albert Square and along with a handful of others we chatted, chopped and took it in turns to work through the recipe, it took over one and a half hours and although the social side was nice, I met the team from Trove foods in Chorlton who told me they do Autumn forraging sessions (didnt sign up for that as I remember looking for a certain type of mushroom from a library book with a particularly unsavoury group of "mates" in 4th year of Reddish Vale...., I certainly dont want to do that again) anyway back to chutney, we made Damson chutney and I discovered the difference between chutney and jam is onions and chillies. My finished product was poured into a sterilised Jar (this is particularly important especially the lid where bacteria can lurk) it looked very much the good life, but I can see now why people just go to the shop and buy it, its an awful lot of effort for something that may or may not taste nice.

Oh, yes and our group met Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstock, snap attached, i do like to scare a celeb, he wouldnt stand close to me for the snap so I tugged his shirt, hence the fearful expression.

Laters

Not sure what I might try next.........

Mahoo