The Shopshire Prune - A Damson

Just got back from the Ludlow Food Festival where I went to a taste workshop on Damsons - specifically the Shropshire Prune. I have planted one of these trees in the kitchen garden and was very keen to find out how to make the most of it. We sat down to a plate of lemon scones with damson jam, pork pie with Damson Chutney, Damson Cheese, Damson Icecream (dipped in chocolate) all washed down with Damson Gin. Well food for thought as they say. This variety is not the largest of the Damsons and more egg shaped than some but supposed to be superior in flavour.

I got home to find my Damson tree laden with beautifully ripe fruit - Damsons can be lip puckeringly sharp but this year they are lovely and sweet. Here is my first picking. The fruit has a lovely blueish bloom on the skins. I'm going to make some jam and puree the rest for the freeze. The next bowl full are destined for a bottle of gin.

The Shropshire Prune has been adopted into the Slow Food Ark visit the blog here for more information and recipes. I'm definitely going to try the ice cream. 

Word of warning, it is best to make sure you remove all the stones when using them in cooking. You can otherwise spend happy hours playing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor with all the stones and new teeth are expensive!

Collecting my first Honey bee Swarm

Heavens, I have spent this evening collecting my first ever bee swarm from a neighbour's front garden. Be careful what you wish for as I had just been saying last week that I wanted a swarm this year - however I rather hoped someone else might have collected it for me and delivered it to my door!

I got home about 6pm to find an excited message about the bees and went to investigate to find them in shrub about four feet off the ground. I dashed home to improvise a swarm collecting kit.  I chose my smartest cardboard box (thank you Emma Bridgewater) and a white sheet,  loaded my bee things into a wheelbarrow and suited up (bee stings hurt).

Needless to say that the edifying sight of me in my bee suit waving a smoker around drew a crowd of interested onlookers so I had to pretend I knew what I was doing. Sarah gamely put on my spare jacket and helped me cut away the branches the bees were hanging from so I could put them in the cardboard box. I then inverted this over the white sheet and propped up a corner so the bees could get in and then gently smoked the bees remaining in the shrub.  So far so good. The idea is that if the queen is in the cardboard box, the flying bees will be attracted to her and should all make their way in as dusk falls.  I then dashed home to get a spare hive ready for its new occupants.

When I returned at 7.30 pm, the bees had obviously read the same text book as me and were all in the box. I  wrapped the sheet over the top of the box and loaded into the wheelbarrow and took them home (followed by the interested audience). I then had to get them into the hive. This was achieved by tipping the box over the hive and shaking them in. The bees at the entrance to the hive then fanned pheremones to encourage stragglers to make their way inside. Some made their way back into the cardboard box probably attracted by the lingering scent of the queen.  I shook these onto the white sheet which I had put over a board sloping up to the hive entrance and encouraged them up with the smoker.

Well fingers crossed the queen is in there.  I will feed them sugar syrup tomorrow and hopefully they will stay.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb

Picked the first of the Rhubarb this week. The Timperley Early is living up to its name and is coming on despite a couple of heavy frosts. I zapped some in the microwave on medium with a tablespoon of soft brown sugar for five minutes and it came out perfect. I also made some St Clements ice cream to go with it. Very easy in a machine and surprisingly used half tin ambrosia custard, pot of good orange curd and a splash of double cream. I added juice of a lemon and some grated zest. Served with lemon shortbread and made a very yummy pud.

I also have some later varieties such as Victoria to follow on and am hoping to make some rhubarb and ginger jam - which is delicious. I also like to make a rhubarb and orange custart tart which can be very posh with a caramelised sugar topping. Crumble, traybake - ginger or orange sponge with some ground almonds and chopped rhubarb, if ginger ad some chopped preserved ginger too.

Bargains on the Web

Oh dear more bargain hunting online. Has everyone discovered Groupon and Secret Sales. Worth having a look. I have just bought a voucher from Groupon for a canvas print 2x3 ft for just £29 - bargain. Well we shall have to see what it looks like first I suppose. I have uploaded this pic of frosted sage to give it a whirl. This will look fab in my new kitchen which has walls in F&B Studio Green - think British Racing Green.  Mum and I also recently tried the O Spa in Bond Street with a bargain £30 treatment which gave you 75 minutes of pampering - which we followed with the set lunch at Galvin at Windows (top of the Hilton Park Lane) it was a fab day.

I have also joined up with SecretSales, worth a look. Bought a few things in a Garden Trading sale including a lovely wooden herb stand with galvanised pots.

My current favourite mugs are the creamware mugs from Big Tomato Company. I designed some mugs with them for Leeds Castle and recently ordered a personalised valentines mug for him in doors. If you scroll down to the bottom of their homepage they have and factory outlet section and I have treated myself to a large teapot with "more tea vicar" emblazoned on it - perfect.
Happy hunting.

Fab Bread & Butter Pudding

Made this at the weekend as had a surplus of eggs from the chooks (good girls are still laying well). Also had a loaf of fruit soda bread. So I made sandwiches with the fruit soda with softened butter and good marmalade and sliced them to fit an ovenproof dish. You can sprinkle with some booze if you like - cointreau works with this one. Make a custard with five eggs (three whole plus 2 yolks) which you need to whisk with 5oz caster sugar until light coloured. Heat half pint full milk with half pint cream flavoured with the grated rind of two clementines.

When scalded (v.v. hot when the skin starts to form) pour onto the eggs whilst whisking (I used a billy blender). Then pour over the bread slices and leave to soak. For best results bake in a bain marie in a oven at 180 c for approx 40 minutes until cooked through and golden brown. Serve warm.  I don't usually bother with making the custard properly first, but it really makes a difference with the texture being more creme brulee than quiche.

Hare Mosaic

I have been trying to finish my latest mosaic - Moon Gazing Hare - but I have been struggling with the background. I have now made a start and now have the colours sorted, hopefully shouldn't be too much longer. The background is hopefully resembling a night sky with the moon shining down.