more gorgeous gooseberries

Last summer, I finally tackled my fear of preserving by enrolling in the Preserving in a Day course with Sky Cracknell, founder of England Preserves. Sky sells her jams and chutneys at the fantabulous Spa Terminus food market in Bermondsey while also supplying some of the top restaurants and department stores in London. 

After a very busy day weighing, boiling, and filling, I left with jars and jars of jam, as well as the knowledge and confidence to try it all at home. But sadly our fruit on the allotment had pretty much gone by then, so I had to wait...

...until now! Our gooseberry standards were so laden with fruit this year, even after thinning, that G had to hammer in extra supports.

Admittedly, gooseberry is one of the easiest jams to make, but I'm so pleased with the result:

I'm also so glad I made it before this heatwave set in--far too hot to be boiling fruit now! Perfect weather for gooseberry ice cream though...

pedalo-ing

Saturday morning, we headed straight to the Serpentine to be at the front of the queue for pedalos:

Pedalo-ing has been on my list of things to do in London for ages, and now having had a spin, I'm wondering why it took me so long to give it a go! G remembers taking one out as a small boy, and it seems not much has changed, as he aimed straight for the swans:

Luckily the swans (and geese and coots) were completely unfazed, and G made amends with bits of bread tossed over the side.

An hour later, still fuelled by coffee from the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen, we popped into Slightly Foxed for a quick look: 

Because while water and books don't mix, water followed by a browse round a super (air-conditioned) bookshop on a scorching hot day certainly do!

bodacious blackcurrants

In the past, I've steered clear of anything and everything blackcurrant-flavored, associating the taste with cough syrup (which I also avoid).

But when my ice cream guru Kitty Travers published her recipe for Blackcurrant Ice Cream in The Observer, I began to have second thoughts. And when the temperature in Teddington hit 30°C, I decided it was time to give it a go...

and ended up making one of my favorite ice creams yet!

As G has always like blackcurrants, we have two bushes on our plot. Which was convenient, as Kitty's recipe calls for 5-6 blackcurrant leaves to make an infused custard. The leaves impart the most amazing, yet completely indescribable flavor. So much so, I actually considered making an ice cream from just the leaves, only to discover later that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has published a recipe for Blackcurrant Leaf Sorbet.

So now I've been converted to both the fruit and the leaf. Who knows what's next...!

broad-minded

This year, we had our first really successful crop of broad beans. The extra-long raised bed G specially built and planted up was a forest of head-high plants. Which then begged the question, what to do with sooo many broad beans? Eeek!

Luckily, once double-podded, the beans came to not-too-much, so the glut wasn't as unmanageable as I'd feared. And in the end, we found a fabulous use for them all--Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Broad Bean Hummus:

Simply whizz the double-podded beans with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Hugh suggests adding garlic (G's preference) but I prefer it without. Absolutely delicious as a snacky dip with plain Kallo breadsticks. We made several batches, and devoured them all. The only problem is that now the crop is finished, we'll have to wait another year for our next batch!

back to blogging

It's hard to know where to start after such a very long time away...

But maybe it's best to return to an old favorite--Petersham Nurseries,

currently awash with roses:

Because you can never have too many roses...

or too much cake, particularly Petersham's cake:

Some things never change!