Apple season is in full swing here on the smallholding. It is a favourite time of year for the geese, whose morning routine now begins with an extremely loud and flappy visit to the base of their favourite apple tree to see what windfalls have come down overnight. They appear to have a strict finders…
Sweet
Wild Blackberry and Rosewater Cake
Wild blackberries are very much at home on the smallholding. They wind their way through hawthorn, ash and nettle hedgerows, providing a welcome barrier from the country lane and home for a multitude of wildlife. Unfortunately the brambles also pop up in less welcome places. This year they have made an appearance in the middle…
Milk Jelly with Strawberries, Elderflower, and Cobnut Brittle
The tiny alpine variety of strawberry that grows wild might just be the tastiest strawberry there is. The minuscule fruits, sherbet sweet and deeply flavoursome, melt in the mouth in seconds. We have a small patch of them growing in the dappled shade of some rosebushes. We also forage a few extra from the grassy…
Blackcurrant and Bay Leaf Jam
Jam making is very much an activity we reserve for the colder months of the year. Rainy days especially. There is something very cheering about having a huge pan of brightly coloured fruit and sugar bubbling away on the stove, while rain patters against the window panes. This weekend though, it was not only rain…
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…
Beetroot, Cocoa and Sea Salt Cake
This year we have two different varieties of beetroot seeded alongside the rainbow carrots, chard and parsnips in the vegetable patch. The classic looking Rhonda, which we grow every year for its well-flavoured, deep magenta bulbs; and the Italian Barabietola di Chioggia, which produces beautiful rose red roots with fabulous pink and white striped flesh. …
Cherry, Vanilla and Cinnamon Clafoutis
We have had a bumper cherry crop this year. The two trees in the orchard have been so laden with fruit that their branches have arched and drooped with the weight of the hefty bunches. The ruby cherries, speckled with flecks of pale orange and yellow, are beautifully sweet, and full of juice. As the…
Summer Berry Sponge Flan with Blackcurrant & Apple Jelly Cubes
The summer fruits are slowly starting to ripen in our fruit cage. Pink raspberries take centre stage, their browning canes beginning to droop with the weight of their developing bounty. A smart row of blueberry bushes edge the front of the cage; a mix of varieties that will each fruit at a different time in…