Red Gooseberries and Wild Strawberries

The weather in the UK is sweltering and I have been spending quite a bit of time in the allotment garden plot  in my shorts - mostly weeding, but delighting in what has been a better year for me in relation to vegetable gardening.  I am getting there slowly and enjoying the fruits and vegetables of our labour.

Here is a glimpse of some edible colours in my garden 

Heavily scented red roses - I am drying some to garnish homemade cakes.

A bowlful of red gooseberries.

Wild strawberries and traditional strawberries. Not enough to make strawberry jam, but plenty to enjoy with yogurt, cream or in a pie!

 Rocket also known as arugula growing well in pots. 

 More Lettuce from the garden

Most of my broad beans got destroyed by black fly, I only managed to harvest a small pot. The potatoes were a bonus gift from last year and made for a lovely meal for two. 

Rhubarb was the first vegetable we harvested from the garden and stalks have been shared with neighbours on our left and right side. I have also made a Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie and it was delicious.  Blog post coming soon. 

I am sharing this post with  Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave over Our Happy Acres

Berry time Jam with Banana Soda bread farls

A few good months ago, I came across these Scottish karaka blackberries at a grocery store and had to get them. It was madness and sheer indulgence especially as I had so many berries: raspberries, black and red currant, strawberries and gooseberries, all growing on my own plot, but when I saw these fat, long, juicy berries I just could not resist.

Would you have been able to resist them? They actually tasted rather good and with substance and texture.

We had eaten of these karaka blackberries with some fresh with whipped cream, some with waffles, some with pancakes, but I had some left over along with my own strawberries and raspberries. So I decided to preserve some of them in the form of jam. I measured out exactly 500g and made a simple 50:50 jam recipe from Darina Allen. We have pretty much finished the jar now, but I managed to take one picture before it was all gone. Here is the jar served with banana soda bread farls and whipped cream.

Banana soda bread farls
Ingredients
200g strong wholemeal flour
200g plain flour
1tsp salt
2tbs sugar
1tsp bicarb
2 ripe bananas
250ml buttermilk or natural yogurt
100ml milk (you may not need this). For two reasons, your banana might be really ripe and secondly, it depends on the consistency of the buttermilk or natural yogurt, some are thick and creamy, others are pourable consistency. So check after adding these, before adding any milk.
Method

Preheat oven gas mark 7. mix flours, salt, sugar, and bicarb in large bowl.
Peel the bananas and mash to a pulp. Add the flour with the buttermilk, yogurt and enough milk to make a firm, but not dry dough. Knead lightly until smooth, then shape into 9inch round. Cut into six wedges. Transfer to a non-stick baking sheet and sprinkle with a little flour. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes until browned and crusty. Cool on a wire rack. Original recipe for Banana soda bread farls from here.

Fruit flavoured vodkas

Now please don’t get the wrong idea about me, I am not a big alcoholic drinker. Honest! This is the chemistry student in me that wants to experiment with different flavours. I’ve successfully made my first ever batch of non-alcoholic elderflower champagne, and now it is the turn of the fruit vodka.

A few years ago, I went to one of Scotland's first ever Russian restaurants with some friends, and tried for the purpose of research you understand (she says coughing under her breath) a number of flavoured vodkas including pineapple and cranberry. I was so thrilled by the simplicity of this drink, that a week or so later whilst making some homemade jam with supermarket bought raspberries that I decided to make my own raspberry vodka. Needless to say, it was very, very nice.
This year, I have decided to make rhubarb, strawberry and raspberry flavoured vodka’s. My mother would so not approve, but some of my friends will. So it will be something bring out and share when alcohol drinking friends come over. The rhubarb has been sitting stewing for awhile, so we got to taste it this evening with some lemonade.

Now, I didn’t think about how the swelled rhubarb chunks were going to come out of the bottle, oh well.

Berry Breakfast

This is one of the nicest ways to start the working day ahead.
Really fresh berries for breakfast. Enjoy!