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Quote of the day:
“Colored scents that fill the air as drowsy insects hum around in the meadow is the place of secret magic where nature alone renews itself.”
– Kate Bergquist
Forage in July for:
Mallow, Yarrow, Fat Hen, Dog Rose, Honeysuckle, Chickweed, Wild Strawberries
Category Archives: Recipes
Not Quite Strawberry Daifuku – with love
Last week, in a romantic gesture for the V day, I bought strawberries, which according to the label came from … Morocco. Oh dear. I do in fact have strawberry plants in flower in the garden, but only the pink-flowered … Continue reading
Posted in Food, fruit, Plants, Recipes, Whimsy
Tagged aduki bean, chocolate, desserts, fruit, Glutinous rice flour, Ichigo Daifuku, Jam, japanese, Mochi, red bean paste, Strawberries, Strawberry mochi, Sweets, Valentine's day
5 Comments
A crescendo of sweetly scented plum blossom
I’ve been off down an internet rabbit-hole again. This time following the trail of plum blossom hydrosol. A hydrosol is a distilled floral or herbal product and apparently plum blossom essence is what ‘freshness’ smells like. So of course I … Continue reading
Looking forward to a Burns Night Supper ….
… and how did an English vegetarian get here? A while back, when my husband and I still did astronomy, we were seconded to the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes on La Palma in the Canary Islands. It was a … Continue reading
Posted in Food, History, Recipes, Vegetables, Whimsy
Tagged Burns night, Burns supper, celebrations, Haggis, Neeps, Poetry, Robert Burns, Tatties
6 Comments
Eating our way through a thicket of Jerusalem artichokes
Along the boundary fence with our neighbours we have a thick line of jerusalem artichokes, interspersed between coppiced hazel bushes. The artichokes grow up to about 8 foot in our garden and occasionally they flower, with sunflower-like yellow heads, if … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Nature, Plants, Recipes, The home garden
Tagged cooking, Gardening, Grow you own, Helianthus tuberosus, Jerusalem artichokes, perennial vegetables, Root vegetable, sunchokes, Tubers
13 Comments
Wordless Wednesday: Need sunshine in December? Grow crab apples.
This vitamin C rich recipe made with rosehips sounds like a wonderful variant on the usual jelly: Rosehip and crab apple jelly
Posted in Food, Recipes, The home garden, Trees, Uncategorized, Wordless
Tagged crab apples, fruit, Gardening, jelly, John Downie, orange, Sunshine
1 Comment
Wordless Wednesday – Chocolate cake with the last of the edible flowers
Recipe can be found here and since I am worried that it might disappear from the bbc website at some point I’ve printed Angela Nilsen’s yummy recipe here as well: Ingredients 200g good quality dark chocolate, about 60% cocoa solids … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Plants, Recipes, Whimsy, Wildflowers, Wordless
Tagged Borage, decorated, Flowers, ganache, Moist chocolate cake, Violas
7 Comments
Quince – Paradisal fruit within our reach
Imagine the Garden of Hesperides. Imagine eating one of the mythical golden apples that grant immortality. Then picture a quince. It’s possible they were one and the same (the ancient roman agricultural writer Columella speculated that they were). So there … Continue reading
Posted in Food, History, Nature, Recipes, Trees
Tagged cooking, Cydonia oblonga, Food, fruit, Fruit leather, Harvest, Meechams Prolific, pome, Quince, recipe, Trees, Vranja
9 Comments
The Bodacious Cornelian Cherry!
Don’t worry, this post is nothing to do with Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (though I’m secretly fond of the film), it is about Cornus mas, otherwise known as Cornelian Cherry. But funnily enough, it turns out that there is … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Nature, Recipes, Trees
Tagged Cornelian Cherries, Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, crop, Food, fruit, Harvest, Jam, jelly, pectin, ripe, setting, tree
16 Comments
An embarrassment of courgettes? Bake cake!
A few years ago, after admiring a tasty, moist cake made by a friend, I became the proud owner of a courgette cake recipe. I promptly filed it and never thought about it again. This summer, at the end of … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Plants, Recipes, The home garden, Vegetables
Tagged abundance, cake, Cornwall, Courgettes, excess, gluten-free, lemons, Port Quinn, Summer
20 Comments
There’s nothing better …. than new potatoes with mojo verde
With temperatures soaring, the sun shining and evenings long, light and gloriously warm, it feels like we should be away on holiday. Unfortunately that is not happening for a while yet, so the next best thing is to pretend and … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Recipes, Vegetables
Tagged Canary Islands, Food, Green sauce, La Palma, Lady Christl, Mojo Verde, Papas arrugadas, Potatoes, Recipes, Sauces, vegetables, wrinkled potatoes
5 Comments
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