As we reach the Equinox once more the autumn sun drops from our heavens into the southern hemisphere. It joins us later and later each day creeping up over the hill and, leaving earlier and earlier, soon slides away again like a huge red barley sugar. The golden autumn light seems to wraps itself around the whole valley easing us towards winter. As the days get shorter the light becomes hard and sharp. Mimicking shadows, long, crisp, exaggerating, fall across the grass. The days are still warm but there is a chill in the misty morning air as we set off for the yard before breakfast.

Continue Reading »

The meat and fish are preserved in a dry cure of flavoured salt and saltpetre. Saltpetre is sodium nitrite and in these health conscious days regarded as unsuitable for human consumption. Its dubious origins and old stories of its early collection certainly make one wonder! However it is a good preservative and turns the meat pink. If you are not using it refrigerate the meat during curing. Sea salt is considered the best for curing and preserving but rock salt is quite acceptable. Modern fine table salt contains chemicals to stop lumps forming so is therefore not suitable for curing.
Continue Reading »

This year the lemony scent of elderflowers filled the farmyard as never before. Even after I had harvested so many flower heads the bushes looked untouched. I was given this traditional old recipe by a friend who was given it, in turn, by her grandmother years and years ago. My kitchen was filled with bowls covered with clothes for days and days and already I wish I had made more.

Continue Reading »

 Summer Again

A holiday in France in June was a rare treat for us even though the sky turned grey, the rain poured down and lightning seemed to split the heavens in two.. We left the farm in the capable hands of Bryony and drove onto the ferry in Plymouth.  We travelled south to Bordeaux for a few days then up to  La Rochelle and the Ile de Rai finally retracing our steps to our dear friends in Northern Brittany.   I spent a glorious three days talking food, future blogs, and garden design with Evelyne. (see: Letters from Brittany) The restoration of their house is a triumph  and their joy in it all a match to the beauty of the place. We had a magnificent time. And the landscape is so strangely familiar!

Continue Reading »

Lambing has finished. Fat sturdy little lambs have moved onto the higher fields with their mothers, now I can turn my attention to the garden once more. How the years vary. I look back at this time last year and read with incredulity of a heat wave, of meals in the garden, seeds frying in the poly tunnel and fruit and vegetables racing away in the garden. As I write the rain pours down. The cairn looks out of the window and grizzles, the lurcher and the sheep dog are curled up on the blanket at my feet and the old labrador, crammed into a too-small basket like a giant brown dormouse, paws over face, is dreaming, I’m sure, “of delphiniums blue and geraniums red.”  I wonder whether to switch on the fire.

Continue Reading »

How the years vary.  Last year winter flew by amidst howling gales and driving rain. This year the contrast has been striking. Up until the third week of March it was so very cold with unusually hard frosts, sun and not a drop of rain. The grass has only just begun to grow and the fields are unusually bare and brown for the time of year. We fretted and fretted that there wouldn’t be enough fresh grass for the ewes with their new lambs. Then suddenly as we reached the end of the month the temperature went up the rain came down.  Warm sun followed and the whole valley burst into life.

Continue Reading »

Traditionally Cottage Pie and Shepherds Pie were made from the leftovers of the Sunday roast. The cold meat was chopped up, mixed with the leftover gravy, put in a pie dish and topped with mashed potato and reheated in the oven. It was OK, but a bit dull!

Continue Reading »