slightly seedy

You might remember a couple I weeks ago I mentioned that I'd made lots of plum jam from the cherry plums that my younger children had gleaned from the roadside. Consequently I had lots of plum seeds left over and because I'm always trying to come up with new uses for old or discarded items - I hatched a plan! Well, actually I tell a little white lie here - I had already hatched it last year so I just re-used the idea for this years seeds! 

Firstly I washed most of the remaining fleshy bits off them and then dried them in the oven for a while. When they are nice and dry, the last stringy bits fall off quite easily with a bit of rubbing and then you have a nice lot of seeds for........ stuffing!! 

Firstly the dry seeds were used by Fairy in her games with gnomes and other creatures and then I stuffed some into little felt bean bags seed bags that we use as throwing bags for multiplication practise. In the bags are last years seeds, in the jar are some from this season though I'm not sure what I'll do with this new lot yet.

I have to 'fess up at this point and tell you that I originally got the idea from a Swiss friend. She told me that when she was growing up they used bags filled with cherry pips as 'toe warmers' when they went to bed. All day the pip filled bags lay on top of the combustion stove getting thoroughly warmed and at night when they were taken to bed, they slowly released the heat onto cold bodies! 

I was so taken with the idea of using something that I'd normally throw out, and immediately saved cherry pips all summer - I still don't have enough for a hot cherry bag though!! 

There's always next years cherry season to look forward to..... !