Organic strawberries

Today we picked 4.9 kg of strawberries from the garden which at Tesco organic prices are worth about £40!

Alpine strawberries

 

I love these tiny little alpine strawberries.  They have quite a different taste to normal strawberries, more like little sweets.  Best eaten straight from the bush - I have been snacking on them whilst working in the Forest Garden. 

Summer jewels

Picked today to make fruit leathers

Apple blossom

Apple blossom is so beautiful when you view it up close. It is the same family as the rose and you can see the similarities.

Lemons on the lemon tree

The lemon tree enjoyed the mild winter ( wrapped up in the greenhouse) and has proven that you can have lemons in our climate!

Holland and Ginkos

I've been away for a week in the Netherlands on a cycling holiday.  I was really impressed at how widely they did "local" there.  The seasonal speciality at the moment is of course asparagus, and they had whole asparagus menus, and asparagus festivals, even with asparagus deserts!  It was wonderful to cycle past so many veg plots and allotments, and their allotments seemed really well organised - tidy and with matching sheds, all with water butts.  It was really interesting to see the different areas specialities, eg cheese, vegetables, flowers etc.  Our favourite place was Leiden Hortus Botanicus, the oldest garden in Holland, dating from the late 1500s, and I was particularly taken with this Ginkgo Biloba which was around 400 years old but had had a female branch grafted onto the male tree about 70 years ago.  Ginkgos produce edible nuts and I have planted a couple at home this year, but I don't think I'll live to see them to this size.

Gooseberry meringue pie

As I took a bite out of the delicious gooseberry meringue pie, the flavour sparkled in my mouth. As I gulped down the soothing pie many spectacular tastes entered my mouth. I totally recommend the ornate recipe and hope you try it yourself. By KS

As you can see my son was taken with this recipe - the only positive reviews I've ever had for a gooseberry recipe!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 375g shortcrust pastry
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 400g gooseberries , topped and tailed
• 2 tbsp elderflower cordial
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 3 egg yolks
• 75g butter , at room temperature

MERINGUE

• 3 egg whites
• 175g golden caster sugar

1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line a 22cm pie dish or tart tin with the pastry and bake blind for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and lightly browned. Turn the oven down to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2.
2. Put the caster sugar, gooseberries and 275ml water in a pan and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes until the gooseberries are just soft (you can add more sugar at this point). Stir in the cordial. Drain the liquid into a small pan and use 2 tbsp to make a paste with the cornflour, then return to the rest of the liquid, stirring to dissolve. Bring to a simmer and stir until it thickens. Beat in the yolks and butter and stir in the gooseberries. Pour into the tart case.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff then beat in the sugar in 2 batches. Pipe or spoon the meringue onto the pie and bake for 40 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp.

Per serving

456 kcalories, protein 5.9g, carbohydrate 58.7g, fat 23.6 g, saturated fat 10.7g, fibre 2.1g, salt 0.71 g

Recipe from olive magazine, June 2008