The wild garlic is as abundant this year as ever. It carpets the woodland floors and lines many of the shaded roadside verges. Open the car window on a sunny afternoon or stumble over a patch on a walk, and its scent is almost instantly noticeable. Here on the smallholding, we are lucky enough to…
spring
Pine Needle Vinegar
There has been a lot of rain here over the last couple of weeks. The ground is saturated with water. The stream is swollen and lapping at the edges of the daffodils. And the geese have found themselves inundated with muddy, pond-sized puddles to dabble in. But, in the moments of sunshine between heavy showers,…
A Spring Salad
Chive flowers are top contenders for our favourite edible bloom. They taste great – a gentle, onion-like flavour, but without the sharpness or pungency of an actual onion. And they look pretty. The rounded heads of blossom break into tiny handfuls of translucent, papery flowers, each one striped dark lilac, with a little grassy tail…
Rhubarb, Wild Watermint and Ginger Crumble
Wild watermint grows along our stream edge. It quietly rises from the banks and within the shallows in swathes during early April. We’re usually alerted to it’s seasonal arrival by accidentally treading on a patch of emerging leaves, releasing a heady aroma into the air. The flavour is reminiscent of peppermint, but perhaps with a…
The Asparagus Bed
One of the first things we did in the vegetable garden was plant an asparagus bed. It takes three to four years to harvest a crop from asparagus, as the plants need time to strengthen and develop, so we wanted to get started as soon as possible. We ordered fifteen crowns, made up of four…
Gorse Flower and Raw Honey Mojito
Last weekend we made gorse flower rum. High up in the hills and woodland, the gorse bushes were blanketed in bright, canary-yellow petals. The individual blooms have a fragile scent that echoes a combination of coconut, vanilla and pineapple. And the collective fragrance of a whole gorse bush, amplified by the warmth of sunshine, reminds…
Wild Garlic, Nettle, Dandelion and Goose Egg Tart
Spring is fully under way here in the hills of rural Somerset. Everything is fresh, green and hopeful. The first of the orchard blossom is decorating the plum and cherry trees, swathes of wild garlic line the stream, and masses of feathery young nettles have appeared along the hedgerows.