The Good Life: Purple Sprouting Broccoli,Wild Garlic and Rhubarb Clafoutis

Balmy evening at the Allotment on 17th April

The recent spell of good weather has propelled the countryside into life. Swathes of wild garlic can be seen in ditches and on the road side with their heavy scent lingering in the air. Even the elderflower, has made an early appearance in places. In the allotment the turn of the seasons is clearly evident with the first spears of asparagus breaking through the soil and the cascades of flowers developing on the currant bushes. Joy of joys; my gooseberry bushes have small fruit developing among the thick healthy green foliage.

Many of the seeds sewn in the newly raked and manicured beds remain dormant, but the peas and broad beans are showing some signs of life. The odd long lost potato may also be making an early appearance and will no doubt greet his brethren when they rise from their well formed drills not far away. To vary our crop and the timing of our harvest this year we have planted Duke of York and Roosters this year.

Purple sprouting broccoli

One of the long awaited treats has survived the winter and flourished during the clement Spring conditions. Growing purple sprouting  broccoli is a game of patience. You wait a year and just when you think nothing is about to happen and the plants, are almost destined for the compost heap, they begin to produce their purple florets. The plants are not very distinguished, and easily ignored for most of the year, but once they begin to produce our bounty the plant becomes very lush and attractive to look at.

We have been harvesting the rhubarb for a number of weeks now, and recently Corinne hinted that she would like to have a clafoutis made with the rhubarb. In the absence of cherries from France rhubarb from Dublin was an extraordinarily good idea. I used the following recipe which was cooked in a 8.5 inch oven dish. The ingredients are as follows: About 5 sticks of rhubarb or enough to randomly dot the base of the dish, a little butter to grease the dish, 300mls of milk, 3 eggs, 80g of Sugar, 80g of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and two teaspoons of eau de vie.

In a food processor, beat the eggs and sugar for a few minutes. Thereafter add the vanilla essence, salt and milk and combine well. Finally, add the sifted flour and baking powder, and pulse the food processor until the flour has been lightly absorbed into the batter. Wash and chop the rhubarb in about 1.5 inch lengths and generously butter the dish. When the rhubarb is stood on end in the dish, the batter can be carefully poured over the rhubarb and should rise to meet the top of the rhubarb. Try not to cover the rhubarb. Spoon the eau de vie over the batter and rhubarb and place in a 180 C oven for 45 minutes, or until the clafoutis is well risen and golden brown. Allow it to cool, but serve it warm with either sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for best results. In celebration of the end of the lenten period you may as well have both! A very good plan "b" is to eat the left over cold clafoutis for breakfast with black coffee the next day.

Corinne has found a new friend

Besancon - Cherry Harvest

One of my tasks was to assist in the picking of the cherries. These are not the sweet variety that you generally see in the markets or shops. The variety growing on the trees were smaller and less fleshy but scarlet red in colour and they shone like rubies in the sunlight. Their taste is quite tart but very satisfying after a meal or just to pick up and eat during the day.

I was told that the harvest was not as plentiful as last year, where the branches were positively laden with fruit. With one hand you could hook the branches bringing them within reach and then pick the fruit with their narrow stems with the other. Looped over my arm or hooked onto a convenient branch was my woven straw basket for the fruit with a paper bottom to protect them.

A photograph of my basket hanging from a branch before I dropped it!

Once all that could be achieved reasonably at ground level had been completed, we climbed into the trees on ladders and commenced picking the cherries that were within reach and then resorted to the hook once more bringing the red gems closer for collection, hooking the basket onto a branch again for convenience. Casual conversation with Rene related a few stories about bow brittle the branches of a cherry tree could be. He urged, or advised me, not to climb too high into the trees or bear my weight on the smaller branches. He explained that at this particular time of year [July] the accident and emergency departments of local hospitals were full of people who had fallen from cherry trees. Heeding his warning and looking at the steep hillside where the trees were growing, I knew that if I fell, hitting the ground would only be the beginning of a lengthy tragedy, as I would no doubt accelerate down the hillside towards the dry stone wall, road and numerous wild boar that could be waiting for my demise. Obviously though, his concerns were that I might have been a little over the desired weight to be climbing in his trees, and if I became too adventurous I would break a branch of one of his valued cherry trees.

One of the normally aspirated environmentally friendly landmowers used to keep the grass in the orchard in check

Once our baskets had a fairly reasonable collection we retired to a large wooden table and began sorting the cherries , stopping only to taste for quality control and nourishment. Only the most perfect cherries were selected, stalks slightly trimmed and put to one side in a bowl for cleaning. In a large basin of water the cherries were carefully moved around by hand and what pieces of bark or insect that did exist were washed to the surface of the clear water and from there were skimmed off. Carefully dried, the cherries were placed in 1.5 litre jars, and over them was poured a divinely clear eau de vie distilled from plums. Just enough space left for about 450 grams of white sugar to sweeten the mixture and assist in the maceration of the cherries or griottes. The jars were rolled and turned over the next few hours to assist in the dissolving of the sugar. The process is complete and the griottes are at their best after 6 months, after this the quality of the cherries starts to decline.

Fresh green walnuts

At this time of year the walnuts and hazelnuts are still quite green but a walnut wine can be made from the young walnuts using a Cote de Rhone as a base, and this is very refreshing on a warm day or for an aperitif. When the walnuts are harvested in the Autumn they are dried to preserve them, and thereafter bagged up to be shelled later in the year. Once the cherries were finished we spent the rest of the morning shelling dried walnuts, a very pleasant task especially when you knew that they would soon be eaten in a salad or cakes over the coming days.

A basket of dried walnuts with special shelling tool