Harvest Festival

I seem to have mixed up the seasons and am just now waking up after hibernating, blog-wise, over the glorious summer months, many of which I’ve spent visiting other gardens and horticultural shows.

      

Dalmain House

I need to gird up my loins, however, as I've been asked to open Pablo's garden under the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday 6th July next year. Crikey! Too soon to cross fingers for fine weather.

The glory of golden rod - solidago

 Lots of tidying and cutting back to be getting on with and with only another three garden bins due I fear I’ll be paying lots of visits to the local tip. I do so regret that the garden recycling scheme ends in November. It’s far too soon for Pablo’s garden as I’m often still working in it well into January and would prefer to have the option of monthly collections during the winter. If we have to pay Durham County Council £20 for the privilege of having the bins emptied perhaps they’ll consider extending the service. Some chance!

Astrantia 'going over'

The pear trees have served the crows and starlings well. Both trees are now too large for us to harvest the fruit but we do gather windfalls which fall on to the lawn. Although the small fruit don’t look especially appetising they taste wonderful. Sadly, they don’t keep very long.

I used to have manic days making jam and chutney and wine but now I try to give most of the pears away. (Many friends now pretend to be out when I call with my annual harvest festival. They’re all too exhausted from their own frantic jam making and can’t face yet more fruit). I have made a really nice pear and ginger cake, however. Just replace pears in any apple cake recipe, add a dash of ginger and some stem ginger if you have it and voila!

Greenhouse tomatoes

Rudbekia

We have four old apple trees, varieties unknown, and again, despite some of the fruit looking unappetising (we don’t look after the trees as we should), they also taste delicious. I’m not sure which if any are designated as eating apples but I cook with them all so it doesn’t matter. I do enjoy picking them.

Apple heaven

Herewith my favourite apple cake recipe which just happens to be:-

Mary Berry’s Very Best Apple Dessert Cake

8 oz self raising flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

8 oz castor sugar

2 eggs

half teaspoon almond extract

5 oz butter – melted

12oz cooking apples, peeled and cored (windfalls are fine)

1 oz flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas mark 3

Lightly grease an 8inch loose-bottomed cake tin

Measure flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter in a bowl. Mix well until blended, then beat for one minute.

Spread half the mixture into prepared tin.

Thickly slice apples and lay on top of the mixture in the tin, piling mostly towards the centre.

Roughly spoon the remaining mixture over the apples.

*Make sure mixture covers the centre well as it will spread out in the oven.

Sprinkle with flaked almonds.

Bake for 1hour and fifteen minutes, approximately until the cake is golden and coming away from the sides of the tin.

Dust the top with icing sugar before serving.

Delicious served with ice cream or crème fraiche as a dessert, or eaten warm with morning coffee.

Enjoy

And after April ...

When May follows

And the white-throat sings and all the swallows,

Hark, where my blossomed pear tree in the hedge

Leans to the fields and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops at the bent sprays edge …

Flowering cherry

 April traditionally is associated with blossom and this April didn’t disappoint until the weather turned against us, destroying the blossom on many prunus (flowering cherries) trees before we had time and opportunity to fully appreciate their breathe-taking beauty. Fortunately the apple blossom hasn’t been affected and I’m hopeful for a good harvest later in the year.

Early apple blossom

Similarly with pear tree blossom. We have two extremely large and ancient pear trees – they are possibly as old as the house itself which was built in 1911. The tree nearest the house bears the most wonderful, juicy pears which, when we first moved here in 1979, we gathered by standing on a neighbour’s flat-roofed garage and which we transformed into wonderful jams, chutneys and, to my mother-in-law Rouena’s delight, a very intoxicating pear wine, which when left to mature in the under-stairs cupboard until the cupboard was spring cleaned the following year, almost took on the status of a fine spirit. Sadly for us, the tree is now so large that only the starlings and crows benefit from the mouth-watering fruit.

Old pear tree with delicious fruit, sadly enjoyed only by the birds!

The second tree bears a small, hard fruit in large quantities. Again the tree is too large to enable us to harvest the fruit but, happily, most of the pears are blown onto the lawn by the autumn strong winds and are easily harvested as wind-fall fruit. Thus they don’t keep for long but even so are delicious eaten au naturelle;  stewed in the microwave and eaten with Greek yoghurt; or made into pear pickle or chutney - delicious when eaten with cheese and celery for a quick and tasty supper.

Roll on autumn - my mouth is watering already…