It seems that winter is well on the way. The orchard sparkles with early morning frost; the very last of the russetted autumn leaves are clinging onto the branches; and there’s hardly a honeybee to be seen (they are mostly staying put in the warmth of the hive). The garden birds know it too. They…
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Sausage Rolls with Pear, Stilton, and Sage
Now that the clocks have turned back and the nights are continuing to draw in, everything is beginning to slow down here on the smallholding. We’re no longer rushing to harvest and process vegetables from the raised beds, or fruits from the orchard. The honeybees are hunkered down for the cold months so, aside from…
Apple Pressing Weekend
Last weekend was dedicated to the annual apple pressing. Every year we harvest a hotchpotch of eating and cooking apples from the orchard to transform into a year’s supply of apple juice. By late October, most of our trees (with the exception of the two Spartans and a little tree of unknown variety by the…
Salted Chestnuts, Rosemary Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate
When we lived in London one of our favourite autumn activities was to go sweet chestnut foraging in Greenwich Park. Dotted all over the hilly parkland were huge trees that reliably fruited year on year, scattering their spiked bounty on the grass below. There is something deeply satisfying about easing the nuts from their prickly…
Apple and Blackberry Crumble with Rosemary, Cinnamon and Rosehip
Autumn is here. It’s now dark when we get up in the morning, and we only have a couple of hours of daylight left after work. We’re wearing coats and boots again, watching the leaves slowly fill our gutters, and inching ever closer to lighting our woodburners. We opened the curtains this morning to find…
Apple Crisps
Apple season has arrived here in Somerset, and the fruits on each of our trees are busy ripening in quick succession. The orchard equivalent of a musical canon. There is a wonderful mix of eaters and cookers. Some are great for roasting, bubbling down into a compote, or turning into chutney. Others are best crunched…