It’s recipe time and until my new website is up and running I’m afraid I’m having to write my recipes as blog posts. So here it is:
When my Dad found those little juicy plums whilst walking the dog I instantly turned to the ever so brilliant book by Alys Fowler called ‘the thrifty forager’. She confirmed that they were indeed cherry plums and was so kind as to share a tarte recipe on the opposite page. How could I ignore that, especially when it looked so delicious?! The recipe included a homemade pastry tart case, however I cheated and brought a sweet pastry case from the supermarket to save a bit of time. So here’s the recipe for the most delicious tarte in the whole world!
Ingredients:
50g cornflour
100g caster sugar
500ml milk
2 egg yolks
1 sweet pastry case (7-9 inches)
Approximately 500g of plums
Heat the Milk in a saucepan, do not let it boil. In a bowl mix together the sugar with the 2 yolks until it becomes smooth and shiny. Add the cornflower and stir well. Lower the heat on the milk and add the sugary egg mixture, stirring constantly. It usually takes around 15 minutes for the creme to cook. It should become stiff and come away from the sides of the pan. Let it cool in the saucepan off the heat. Cover the pan with cling film to stop the creme drying up.
Wash the plums, half them and remove the stones. Spread the creme over the pastry and cover neatly with plums. Bake the tart at 180C for 15-20 minutes - the plums will become soft and slightly caramelised.
A homemade bee hotel has been on my to-do list for quite a while now, I was originally going to make one out of bamboo canes and then create a little wooden frame to put them inside. However, the inspirational world of social media has given me a much better idea and I just couldn’t wait to go out and pick some… Common Hogweed! Now I must confess I never knew anything about this plant before apart from that it lines countryside roads and looks a little like a large cow parsley. Infact the stems are hollow and make great homes for leaf cutter bees! So off I went on my bicycle to forage some large common hogweed stems and I managed to find the mother load down a little country lane in my village (and I made a note to go back and forage the elderberries too!)
I’m going to cut them down to around 6 inches in length and leave them in the shed to dry out. Alternatively you can wait until later in the year when the whole plant has dried before foraging the stems, I decided to let them dry off inside incase the plants rotted in the rain (and we are forecast a lot of that during the next week!) The first stage of my bee hotel is in process, now all I need to do is make a little wooden frame to hold the stems, add a pretty slate roof, and give it a lick of paint and then all those leaf cutter bees whizzing around the allotment should be happy.
Now whilst I was out collecting the common hogweed stems I decided to go and look at a tree which my Dad had told me about. He brought a little fruit home one day after walking the dog and after lots of research we came to the conclusion is was a cherry plum, I was so excited! We loaded up the common hogweed stems onto our bikes and cycled down to a set of garage lock ups in the village where the cherry plum tree was. I just so happened to have brought a little egg basket with me and we managed to fill it up to the brim with those juicy little plums. I noticed there were loads more higher up out of our reach so I made a note to come back with a ladder (and I managed to get another basket full!) I’ll be making some cherry plum jam and a tarte very soon so stayed tuned for recipes!
I have come to the conclusion that foraging is one the most fun things to do! It’s food… for free! I have never felt happier then returning home with a basket full of cherry plums and a bag full of common hogweed stems. It’s amazing that I’ve been living in this village all my life and never noticed all the elderflowers, plums, sloe berries and black berries that are dotted around. I’ll be off foraging next weekend for elderberries and blackberries, everything seems to be so early this year due to all the sunny weather we’ve been having. Not that I’m complaining, it just means more jam for the store cupboard and more yummy desserts
To celebrate the harvesting season I’ve decided to give one of my handmade harvesting bags away! It’s ever so handy, you can use it to harvest your crops, for picking flowers or even carrying fire wood.
All you have to do is simply comment below with your name (and surname to avoid confusion!) and I will draw the lucky person from a hat. The results will be posted on the 1st of September so remember to keep updated by checking the blog, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to find out if you are the winner!
The deadline date is the 31st of August 2014. - NOW ENDED!
So I made the decision to sell my little Ghillie Kettle. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it but after attempting to cook some bacon on it I discovered it wasn’t pratical to cook anything on, especially if theres more than one of you. Thats when I came across this neat little cooker on ebay and I instantly fell in love!
I managed to get it at a bargain price and after a little clean and maintenace it looked brand new. It has two hobs on the top, a grill and a little oven which is all run by gas, and the overall size of the cooker is tiny (I think they were originally made for boats and caravans!) I also brought a little table from Ikea for £5.00, covered the top of it with oilcloth and made a little patchwork curtain to hide the gas bottle underneath. It just so happened to be the perfect sized table to fit into my shed beside my vintage kitchen cabinet, and it was also the right height (and the price was great too!)
Once we moved it into the shed I just couldn’t wait to test it out, so we planned to have lunch up the allotment during the week and I wasn’t dissapointed at all… It worked like a dream! I cooked me and my Dad an omelette with cheese, bacon and some swiss chard freshly picked from plot 15C. There is nothing better then harvesting your homegrown crops and then cooking it up straight away, and the omelette was delicious too.
Now my shed is starting to look like a proper little kitchen and I just love how my little cooker looks sitting next to my 1950′s kitchen cabinet. I’ll be making a little shelf to sit above the cooker so my pots and pans can be stored there and the utensils can hang there too. My shed will end up looking like a little home, if only it was big enough for a bed! However, I did come across one big problem, I have no sink and therefore nowhere to wash my messy pans and plates. I have come up with a plan though and that is to create a little washing up area outside my shed consisting of a tall log with a galvanised tub sitting ontop so I can fill the tub with warm water from the kettle and wash my dirty dishes.
I do wonder what the neighbours will think when they see me cooking and washing up, or if I’ll be getting any orders for cups of tea!
It’s official, I have had my allotment for one whole year! I can’t believe how quickly the time went, it seems only yesterday that I was signing the agreement and planning out my little patch of land.
When I first set eyes on plot 15c it was in the usual state for most newly acquired allotments; covered in weeds, carpet, landscaping material and god knows what else! But with a little dedication and hard work (and lots of help from my Dad) we managed to create a beautiful blank canvas of soil. Then it was just the matter of planning out the layout, making room for a shed, fruit cage, two strawberry raised beds and 3 rotation beds. There are still a few small jobs that need to be done, for instance the fruit cage needs completing, the shed needs the tin roof put on, guttering needs to be attached and I need to make a cold frame. But it is getting there and I couldn’t be more happier!
I absolutely adore my little slice of land, it’s the perfect place to escape to, to relax and drink tea until my hearts content (and maybe do some weeding too!) I am so glad I put my name down for my own plot and urge everyone to do the same. I wouldn’t swap it for the world!
The harvesting season has started nice and early this year, infact I have already harvested all my peas and all the broad beans! The potatoes are dissapearing rather quickly too and the strawberry season is officially over. Everything else on the other hand is growing really well, theres a few baby borlotto beans, baby pumpkins, green tomatoes and the cabbages are extremely large. I also just sow more seeds and planted out some leeks so I am ready for the year ahead. Which brings me onto my new sewing project to make the perfect harvesting bag. Now I saw a photograph of this bag online and fell in love but I certainly didn’t fall in love with the price tag of £38.00. So I raided my fabric stash and grabbed the scissors determined to make my very own version, after 30 minutes my bag was complete and I couldn’t wait to go up the allotment to try it. It just so happened that I was going to be harvesting the last row of my potatoes the next day so it was perfect timing, and it worked a treat. It is simply a square of hessian with matching bias binding around the edge and a handle at each corner. So simple yet unbeliavably handy and beautiful at the same time.
I am already the lucky owner of a large vintage trug and a mini vintage trug and I adore them, however I often find that when I take a harvest home I forget to take the trug back to the allotment with me. The great thing about this bag is that it folds up small and it can be stored easily away and because it’s made out of hessian it’s very hard wearing. It looks suitably rustic and it doesn’t matter if it gets dirty at all, infact the more used it looks the better I think. I am planning on making a few more to have as spares in the allotment shed (and maybe make a few for my Dad too!) But the best thing about this bag has to be the price, it cost me a mere £3.25 for the metre of hessian fabric and thats it!
This was the first year I went foraging for elderflower and I had such a great time, as a matter of fact I went foraging for it on two separate occasions and came home with baskets full of the pretty white flower heads. I did go a little overboard with making the cordial and champagne, in the end I think I made about 50 bottles (not that I’m complaining!) I especially love the cordial mixed with lemonade, however I found out that there are a lot of other recipes that use cordial as an ingrediant including the strawberry and elderflower jam recipe I featured in a previous post. I also happened to chance upon this jelly recipe and I just couldn’t wait to try it, I am a huge lover of jelly and elderflower so it was a match made in heaven! I had never made jelly before and didn’t realise it was this easy. It was the most delcious jelly I have ever tasted, my new favourite dessert and I will definately be making it again!
Recipe:
300 ml elderflower cordial
400 ml cold water
6 leaves gelatine
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
10 or more fresh strawberries, you can add how many you feel like!
Mix the cordial with the cold water in a jug. Soak the gelatine for 5 minutes in just enough cold water to cover. Meanwhile, warm 100 ml (3 fl oz) of the cordial mix in a medium pan until hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat.
Squeeze out any excess water from the gelatine. Stir the gelatine into the warm cordial until fully dissolved. Add the remaining cordial mix and the lemon juice, and stir well. You must add the remaining cordial to the dissolved gelatine and not vice versa, or it can cause the gelatine to go stringy.
Add the chopped strawberries to a bowl, pour on the jelly mixture and leave to chill overnight (tip: If you want the strawberries to be floating in the centre of the jelly then pour on half the mixture, let it chill for an hour and then pour on the rest of the jelly mixture and allow to set overnight)
It seems that the strawberry season is slowly coming to an end here on plot 15c and I am a little relieved. Don’t get me wrong, I love strawberries but there was a massive glut of them and after making lots of jam already I was a little bemused about what I could make with the rest. I came across a recipe for some strawberry cordial and it sounded delicious! I had already made lots of elderflower cordial and amongst it being really yummy I found that you can use it as an ingredient in so many things such as jelly (there will be another post all about my elderflower jelly very soon!) I used half of my strawberry harvest to make some more strawberry and elderflower jam because I love it so much, and then I used the other half to make the cordial.
Recipe: (to make roughly 2 litres or cordial)
1kg crushed strawberries
2 unwaxed lemon, thinly sliced
1.8kg caster sugar
1litre of water
Place the strawberries and lemon in a large glass bowl with the sugar and citric acid.
Bring the water to the boil and once boiled, pour it into the bowl and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.
Leave to cool, cover and place in a fridge for 4 days.
Strain through a muslin and decant into sterilised bottles. Keeps in the fridge for up to 6 months.
It tastes delicious with water, lemonade and it can be mixed with wine for that perfect summer drink (adults only!). If I don’t drink it all over the next week then I might try and make some jelly with it, or maybe even some ice lollies if the sun keeps shining
The weekends usually consist of one whole day being spent up the allotment, I just love being there, It’s my favourite place and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather being doing! After a full week at work it’s nice to cycle up to Plot 15C in the morning with a long list of jobs to complete to spend the day in the sun shine weeding and harvesting crops (and remembering to put on suncream and a hat!) This weekend it just so happened to be a glorious day on Sunday (and poured with rain on Saturday!) so I headed to the allotment to do some much needed weeding. As a little treat I stopped at the local shop on the way to buy some supplies for lunch, both me and my Dad were spending the day on our plots so I decided to make us some lunch up the allotment.
I absolutely love my Ghillie Kettle, it makes the most delicious cups of tea and it’s so easy to use (once you get the hang of it!) You can also cook on it using the top of the kettle whilst it’s boiling and then you can finish cooking using the embers in the fire pit once the kettle has boiled. I have only ever cooked a pancake on the Ghillie so today for lunch I decided to cook some bacon and make some good old fashioned bacon sarnies! After spending the morning weeding it was nice to sit back and enjoy the sunshine eating a delicious lunch, something I would love to do more often on the plot.
Now here is an idea which has been swimming around in my head for the past week. I was thinking how nice it would be to cook lunch up the allotment every weekend and how even nicer it would be to cook the food I was growing. Then I thought how great would it be to film a sort of spin off series to my allotment videos but focus entirely on cooking little snacks and lunches like omelettes etc on the allotment. This is just an idea really but it would be great to hear any feedback on the matter? Would it interest people at all?
This weekend I am planning on cooking my fresh broad beans on the stove and adding them to a salad freshly picked from my Dads allotment, I just can’t wait!
