The gluts have left the building (shed)
This is where I used to write about the gluts I get from my veg patch and the ensuing gluttony in the kitchen.
Now I write a weekly mostly-veggie recipe over on Substack, plus share tales from the veg patch and exclusive videos. You can subscribe for free by clicking on the link below and every recipe will be sent straight to your inbox. If you’d like more content (such as those videos I mentioned, interviews and printer-friendly PDFs of every recipe to collect) do consider becoming a paid subscriber. More on that here.
In the meantime, here’s an archive of my old Gluts and Gluttony blog:
Blood Orange & Saffron Polenta Cake
Making a seasonal pudding is a tough brief in February. Not much seasonal fruit around and there’s only so many times I can raid the freezer for gluts of gooseberries squirrelled away last summer. But I’m happy to venture further afield, and glad of some imported sunshine …
Damson, blackberry & cobnut chocolate pots
Damsons, blackberries and cobnuts all arrive in the hedgerows around my house at the same time. It’s as if Nature if giving you a hint. And, never one to ignore her, I am happy to oblige.
Easter Tiffin
Another quick Easter treat for those in need of a speedy seasonal treat and without a kitchen. These tiffin squares, a sort of Eastery Rocky Road, will power my Bank Holiday weekend which is to be filled with shoveling into the raised beds the three tonnes of compost which has just arrived….
Simnel Trifle Pudding Pots
This recipe is a quick fix pudding that I loosely term 'trifle' or 'pudding pot'. It is packed with simnel cake, lemon curd, marzipan, candied peel and almonds - all the flavours of Easter in a single pot, and a five minute job
Rhubarb, ginger & honey flapjack
My craving for forced rhubarb remains unquenchable. Even though we have no kitchen I am still finding ways to use it. Perhaps ‘no’ kitchen is an exaggeration. Whilst our usual kitchen is knocked, we have a temporary one equipped with a microwave that claims to also be a convection oven. I tested that claim for the first time this week with these flapjacks…
Parsnip & Ginger Loaf
No matter how often I grow something, I am astounded every time. To see a tiny seed turn into a plant and then into a meal is wondrous. And like a child clapping her hands in glee at a magic trick, I am filled with giddy amazement by each crop. None more so than this year’s parsnip harvest…
Quincemeat Bakewell Tart
I turn this time to Nigella Lawson for quince inspiration (quinspiration? Too much?). Her quincemeat recipe is an annual event in our house offering, as it does, all the usual loveliness of mincemeat but with the addition of fragrant roast quince. Use it to make mince pies of course, but do try this tart too. It is the lovechild of a mince pie and a Bakewell tart, born at Christmastime under a lucky star and the perfect festive dessert.
Gooseberry & Elderflower Trifle
Poor gooseberries. The unwanted spare part of the idiom world. And so too in the kitchen I fear. Pest free (relatively), easy to grow in the UK and delicious, gooseberries should be piled high on our shelves at this time of year. But they are not. Instead our heads are turned by that golden couple raspberries and strawberries whilst the plain old gooseberry sits awkwardly on the shelf being, in every sense, a gooseberry. But not here.
Fig Leaf Panna Cotta
My fig tree is a maverick. No straight and narrow for her. No conforming to the usual fig-tree stereotypes. No, not for her the trappings of traditional fig-tree identity built and reinforced through generations of oppression. She absolutely categorically refuses to produce a single sodding fig. Still, fig leaves are not a harvest to be ignored because when used to infuse a liquid they impart the richest, sweetest, most figgy of fig flavours you can imagine.
Rhubarb & Pistachio Macaroons
I am just about back in control. Of the rhubarb, that is. I’ve been compotting, pickling, preserving, baking, freezing (less romantic, but very practical) and have worked my way through the armfuls of stems that were plump and in need of urgent picking. I’ve made a fair few savoury dishes with the fat, greener stems. But the pinkest ends of the daintiest stems I have saved for pudding purposes….
Forced Rhubarb & Hazelnut Cake
Forced rhubarb season is upon us. Regulars will know my obsession with rhubarb so we don’t need to go over it again. Suffice to say that every year, when the thin, pink stems arrive in the shops I am never, ever, short of new ideas for using them. This week I made this hazelnut (though it could just as easily have been walnut) and rhubarb cake, inspired by a Nigel Slater plum cake recipe.
No-Churn Grape Ice-Cream
Last year a friend offered me some of her grape glut. Delighted (such a harvest feels especially exotic and precious in England), I went over to her house to pick a bowlful. But there were so many grapes that my pickings didn’t even put a dent in the crop and I wished for more bowls. (For the full story, and recipes, see here and here.) This year though, I have learnt my lesson, and when the grape glut call came once again I returned with all the bowls I could find and none of my English-restraint. So now I have eight kilos of grapes.
Strawberry & Rose Ice-Cream
The strawberries this year are recalcitrant. They have taken one look at the rain and found there no incentive to put on a good showing since Wimbledon will undoubtedly be rained off and so the nation won’t be requiring any strawberries. As a general rule, the veg patch is usually quite happy about warm rain, growing lush and green and rocketing to jungle-like proportions. But enough is enough and everyone, me included, is in need of some sunshine.
Rhubarb, Saffron & Honey Granola Pots
The drizzle has set in. The mud is endless. When it isn’t raining the mire freezes rock hard so it’s treacherous underfoot either way. A chill wind whips around your jacket collar and down your back. Scarf tales, helpless, just get blown about your face. Even the dog shivers. We are in the depths of the Hungry Gap: the long, cold, soggy stretch of the year when the winter crops are virtually spent and spring seemingly a lifetime away. But not in Yorkshire.
Blackcurrant Yogurt Lollies
It’s my first year with a berry harvest. And, goodness, it’s been a whopper. A proper old-fashioned, sinks full of berries, break the scales, stain the trug kind of glut. Redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberries – we’ve had the works.
Lemon & Elderflower Scones
What is a village green for if not for celebrating a Royal Wedding on? Come to our village green tomorrow (actually, do, there will plenty to go around) and you will find it festooned with bunting, tipsy villagers sloshing Pimms jugs from one picnic blanket to another and dogs trying to steal cocktail sausages. I will be handing out lemon and elderflower scones. I might even don a tea dress. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so much like I’m in an episode of The Crown. And yes, I’m a total sucker for it all.