Jams and Jellies

 This time of year has wonderful fruit. My absoulte favourites are omega plums and black doris plums; rich red in colour, tangy and firm flesh, these remind me of my best childhood memories of being in our fuit orchard. I don't particularly like toast and jam, however after eating all the plums I could, and the omega plum season drawing to a close, I decided to venture into jam making, on a small scale. My earlier forays into plum jam making hadn't worked. I just didnt want to use so much sugar, so of course (I learned), they didn't set. I learned from my neighbour Jane, that jams need sugar and lots of it.  A consult with the wonderful blog www.shesimmers.com had me discover the 'source'. So my next lot of plum jam was made with 500gms of plums, destoned and cut into 8ths. No water, and 500gms of pectin infused sugar, rolling boiled together for 15 minutes, a knob of butter, and hey presto, two jars of rich red jam.

Years ago, David and I were in France, staying in the Loire valley. Breakfast included fresh vanilla yoghurt, and clear pear conserve with toast. The memory of the monring sun reflecting on this sumptuous conserve, has stayed and several times I have tried, without success, to replicate this clear pear conserve. This year, our miniature pear tree has abundant conference pears. Right now, they are ripening. So this morning, boyed by a visit to http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/10/apple-jelly-by-method-of-christine.html I knew I had found the perfect recipe. So, 500gm of chopped conference pears, boiled for 30 mins, then strained. This produced a cup of beautiful light clear pear juice. I added 1.5 cups of sugar and some pectin, and boiled for 10 minutes. Skimming off the white scum which formed, I noticed the jelly set quickly. I poured the boiled liquid into two small jars straight from the oven and ha, beautiful, set pear jelly. Fantastic on toast with early morning coffee, and served with blue cheese and a glass of bubbles in the early evening, the Loire valley feels quite close

Gladstone sculptures

A warm sunny saturday morning and we head over the the Gladstone Vineyard. This weekend has the grounds littered with stunning sculptures. This bull was magnificent, and made of barbed wire. Fortunately he stook still when David approached!

Hurricane by Brett Harman

 The eels were lifelike too, made from porcelin

 Beautifully crafted in steel

 Swarming with beetles, this old car looked right at home alongside an old harvesting machine. Qualis Vita Finis Ita was created by Niko Thomsen.

 Yes, this chaise, was made of barbed wire. My yoga training helped here!

 These children are made of orange plastic netting and were right at home, playing amongst the bullrushes

 Glass birds alongside the river

 More pieces of the puzzle. I really liked the asethetics of these pieces by Stueart Welsh using Corten Steel. This one is called Piece of Sky.

 this lace cloth and table setting was made of metal. Most inviting

 strung up in the trees, one of the few sculputres made of fibre, rustling in the breeze

 Ready to take flight

Reminiscent of La metropolitan metro entrance way in Paris, an archway to the river. Jane, David and I headed off to the vineyard cafe and sat outside for our lushous lunch platter of green olive tapenade, sundried tomatoes, cheeses and fresh fruit, and of course, a sip of Gladstone wines.

December: the Broad Bean Queen

I adore broad beans. This love of broad beans is inherited from my father, who didnt each much, and most things he ate were unusual. For the second year this year, I planted dwarf broad beans and they all grew magnificently. this picture shows the harvest from one weekend.

Podding for around three hours produced these fresh tender beans, which I then cooked for 3 minutes in boiling water

The shells from the beans. These taste great too! David doesn't think so, so out they go.

The lush beans without their skins. Fabulous in pasta, tossed in butter or mashed

These are the beans mashed with pesto

this version has fresh virgin olive oil and lemon zest added

Another favourite is mashed with roasted skinned red pepper and olive oil

these mashes can be served as dips, or alongside slow roasted lamb.

Vintage 2011 March - April

The grapes are ripening and lush.

 Some vines have lost their leaves so this weekend we pick the grapes and begin a natural fermentation process with pollen from the vineyard.

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We snip the bunches through the nets, careful not to cut the nets.

Bringing our buckets to the barrell, we strip the grapes and drop them into the barrell, juice, pips, skin and flesh.

And then we trample the grapes. This is fun. The barrell is covered and stored. The grapes will ferment and then we add these to the main pick in April.