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The Seasonal Table

A journal of slow food and slow living from a smallholding in rural England

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elderflower

Milk Jelly with Strawberries, Elderflower, and Cobnut Brittle

01/07/2018 By The Seasonal Table Leave a Comment

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…

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We're Kathy and Tom and we live in the hills of rural Somerset, England. The Seasonal Table is our blog about slow food and slow living. It is a journal of seasonal recipes, featuring organically home grown, wild-harvested, or locally sourced ingredients, and a collection of smallholding stories and activities. Read More…

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Instagram post 2178316428405623001_5029462646 The medlar tree always looks rather beautiful in November. Its long, curled leaves glow a bright shade of yellow, speckled with lime green, rust brown, and the occasional blush of red. Many of the starry-bottomed medlars themselves are still clinging to the branches, awaiting collection. We have already picked a big basketful and brought them into the kitchen to blet in rows on the worktop. Once these have been processed (we extract the fruity flesh to use in cakes and gravy), we'll gather the final batch. They are the final orchard harvest of the year.
Instagram post 2173238874724253777_5029462646 As autumn sets in and the first frosts arrive, the grass growth slows down considerably. Grass is the main food source for our six geese, so it is around now that we start giving them a bowlful of whole wheat each day to supplement their diet. Of course, there are a still a few apples around as well, a little bruised and slightly mushy from the frost, but apparently still delicious enough to keep the tubby gaggle happy.
Instagram post 2168890592396938350_5029462646 The quite lovely seed heads of Magenta Magic Orach catching the autumn light in the salad bed. We've been waiting for a dry day to gather the seeds in their papery cases for weeks now and still haven't got round to it (mostly because it has been so very rainy). The orach leaves, which are similar to spinach and chard in flavour, but a little softer in texture, partly due to the thinner stalk running through them, were a delicious and colourful addition to garden salads this year, so we would definitely like to grow them again next summer Luckily, we're pretty sure the plants have been self-seeding merrily rather than waiting for us to collect them, so it may just be that we can look out for the appearance of some tiny purple seedlings in late spring and then relocate them as needed.
Instagram post 2168169028445608650_5029462646 Wild rose hips from the hedgerows. We make rose hip syrup every autumn and add a few bottles to the store cupboard shelves to tap into for a vitamin C kick if we’re feeling a little under the weather. Also, because it tastes completely delicious (think fruit and vanilla), we use the syrup a lot in the kitchen where it works wonderfully in drinks and puddings (apple crumble in particular). A little bit of experience has taught us that the best flavour comes from the riper rose hips (those that are just starting to have a little give in them when gently squeezed, rather than the very firm ones that have just appeared on the weaving hedgerow stems). And this year we’re following the advice of a very old home preservation book that was kindly leant to us and sealing the syrup in much smaller bottles than usual (it happily keeps on the shelf unopened, but once the lid is lifted it will only last a few weeks before it starts to go a bit squiffy).
Instagram post 2163811460164175673_5029462646 The rain filled days of the last few weeks have been of little concern for our small flock of Shetland sheep. The woolly team have been out munching the grass and windfall apples as usual, only hunkering down in the shelter of the copse to avoid the heaviest downpours. The lanolin in their fleeces helps with waterproofing, and if their wool gets a little too damp for their liking, they do a full body shake to get rid of the worst of it. That said, we're pretty sure they're glad to see a little sunshine on this autumn morning to help dry them out completely.
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Instagram post 2163064150492787583_5029462646 Faded sunflowers. We planted out these little sunflowers (a mix of dwarf varieties, most of which only grew to knee height) along the edges and in the corners of a few of the vegetable beds back in early summer to attract pollinators and bring a little extra cheer. Just one or two of the bright yellow blooms remain now, their wilting petals clinging on despite the endless rain and cooling temperatures. Aside from harvesting a tiny pouch of the seeds to save and plant next year, we'll leave the rest of the seed heads for the wild birds to snack on over the winter.
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#sunflowers #vegetablegarden #organic #sustainablefood #sustainableliving #smallholding #homesteading #homestead #countryliving #countrylivinguk #countrylife #provinciallife #simplelife #thesimplethings #simplethings #theartofslowliving #slowliving #verilymoment #inspiremyinstagram #inspiredbynature #aseasonalyear #thegoodlife #heitermoments #gardenersofinstagram #embracingtheseasons #farmlife #rurallife #aseasonalshift
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