Strawberry Coulis

This year we have had another bumper strawberry crop. 2.5kilos every two days for between two and three weeks. We eat most of them of course, but just occasionally even we find our limit.

My solution to the extra is to make and freeze strawberry coulis. It takes approximately 10 minutes from start to freezer. I store them in foil ramekins and use them throughout the year as an accompaniment to yoghurt, ice cream, etc.

I am sure there are other recipes but this is the one I use.

500gms strawberries, hulled

100gms castor sugar

100mls water

Put the strawberries in a liquidiser.

Bring the sugar and the water to a gentle simmer for about five minutes, making sure the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the syrup over the strawberries and liquidise.

Pour into ramekins and freeze.

 

Strawberries

Never mind Ascot or Wimbledon, we have strawberries galore!

My favourite way to eat them is of course straight off the plant. However, I also love strawberry sandwiches. It has to be on plain white bread - I use the traditional French baguette. Squiggle down the strawberry and eat. Somehow the flavor blends into the bread and explodes in the mouth. You don't believe me? Well, try it for yourself.

 

The fruits of our labours

It's that time of year. Everything is starting and from nothing at all we are suddenly bubbling over with things to bring into the kitchen. The asparagus, as always, started us off but we only cut the spears for six weeks so that the plants have a chance to regenerate for next year.

Then the early lettuce from the greenhouse which I planned to have ready for Easter - and amazingly it was!

Now it's the turn of the cherries. We always know when they are ready because "les voleurs" arrive in ever increasing numbers. We don't mind too much - although we used to! A lot of the trees seem to have grown from pips dropped by the birds and these don't taste great. The really deep red cherries are only on a couple of trees and we grab these when we can. I'm not a supporter of fiddling with nature but if scientists insist on modifying genes and what have you, then perhaps they could sort out the genes in the birds so that they take the high cherries and leave the low ones for us. Now that would be really useful.

Although we eat most of what we pick, this year, if we pick enough, we'll put some in jars and sterilise them so that we can enjoy them later in the year.

And of course it's strawberry time as well. We picked these this evening:

There's nearly two kilos there and we've picking the same amount every two days for the past week. I don't make jam as we don't eat it in large enough quantities to make it worthwhile. However, even I can't eat this amount of strawberries - well, not really and not without really bad consequences! - so I've started making a strawberry coulis which I freeze in plastic cups.

I've discovered the most amazing Delia Smith recipe for strawberry cheesecake ice cream however I prefer to make it plain and use the coulis to pour over afterwards. It really is delicious! If you want to try it you'll find it in the Summer Collection - it involves roasted digestive biscuits and hazelnuts...are you sure you can resist?!

Full speed ahead - strawberries

Just because I haven't been blogging, don't think I haven't been sorting out the vegetable plot. It's all a bit late this year because of the long winter - can you imagine we are still picking cherries and it's JUNE? Once again we have a good crop - more than we can eat - and the birds are needless to say helping us to eat them. Strawberries have been amazing too. Each day we have picked about 1/2 kilo. Since there are only two of us here during the week guess what? Yum. At the weekend we have to make a huge effort to share them but somehow we manage.

These are the strawberries I planted in the autumn of 2008. Last year we had a good crop. This year we've had an amazing crop. They are in the new vegetable plot (started in 2009) under a plastic sheet to keep the weeds down. I believe that I am meant to replant strawberries every two years so in the autumn I'm going to move them over a bit to where the potatoes are currently growing. This means the ground will be relatively weed free, well manured and in reasonably good nick. The plastic sheet will be reused (it's one of those heavy green ones usually used for hedging) and I'll take runners from the current plants. Hope it works or my name will be mud this time next year!

A year of fruit

We have now lived here for 11 years and I can only remember one other year like this one for fruit.

There were so many cherries on the trees that even the birds couldn't eat them all, leaving more than enough for us.

Strawberries were the next delight and although we didn't exactly struggle to eat them all we came very close to striking strawberries from the luxury fruit to be savoured list. We only had a few raspberries but then we only planted them a few short months ago so they are forgiven.

For the past two weeks we have been gathering mirabelles - small yellow prunes with enough flavour to eat raw but not enough, in my opinion, to bother cooking with. We had so many that this year we squeezed a lot and now have about three litres of juice in the freezer ready for sauce on the ice cream. The pigs love mirabelles and we gather about half a bucket for them each day. (They also loved the strawberries!)

Our peach tree, which has struggled to provide more than one edible fruit per year, has this year gone mad and there must be at least 30 peaches which, if I don't pick them today, will be devoured by the wasps - I just hope they will finish ripening off the tree.

The pear trees are in danger of breaking their branches despite the fact that I thinned them vigorously.

And finally the fig trees are promising HUGE amounts of fruit.

Our real worry are the six new trees we planted in the autumn - four apples and two plums. They are showing severe signs of thirst despite having masses of water during the winter and regular watering by Max and I now. If we can get them through to the winter I think they'll survive - but there's August to deal with first.

New beds up the garden path

The last few weeks have not been idle ones Up The Garden Path although as autumn arrives and the days are shorter and the nights cooler, things have been slowing down - including the weeds thank goodness! This year has been a learning curve - or maybe I should say the last six months as we haven't been living from the garden for a full year yet.

Our freezer is packed full of vegetables and fruit and I hope very much that together with any winter veg we succeed in growing, this will see us through the winter months. But of course, some things were more plentiful than others. We will be sick of French Beans before the year is out but wondering where all the peas are. There are no Broad Beans left in the freezer at all and all the onions have been used up - although that's partly the fault of the family who insisted on THREE batches of chutney this year. I have enough stewed apples to satisfy the entire planet's desire for apple crumble and apple pie. Also masses of blackcurrant and blackberries - but no raspberries or strawberries at all.

In an effort to put this right I recently ordered 40 bare-rooted strawberry plants; 20 each of Gariguette and Manille. For the past week I have been frantically digging two 10 metre long beds in a new piece of land which we will use as a veggie plot extension. Ultimately there will be three beds there this year and then about three more in the spring (if I still have the energy!) Yesterday the strawberries arrived and I spent two hours planting them through plastic. This morning they are still standing so I must have got something right! According to Alan Titchsmarsh's book planting them now will give us a decentish crop next year. They are under plastic because I simply don't have the time to weed every single vegetable bed and I plant as much under plastic as possible. I have bought a strong green plastic than can be re-used for several years. As in most things, a compromise between saving the planet and saving my back/time.

I also ordered some raspberry canes - these will arrive next week or soon after and there's a rush on to finish the third bed!

I would like this new piece of land to be, as much as possible, permanent beds although at least one bed will be part of our annual crop rotation (all those onions!). So as well as the fruit there will also be a bed for artichokes - I have six plants raised from seed already and waiting - and also a new asparagus bed. I planted asparagus eight years ago but it has only ever given us enough for two people on a strict diet. I think I planted them all too close together. Whatever, we don't get enough and a new bed there will be to supplement it.