It’s Raining Currants

I know it has been awhile since I posted, but I’ve been busy more of which in a later post. The garden is bursting with life, here are some of the things that I’ve been collecting, cooking and watching.

I went to weed the onions a few days ago and got distracted when I noticed the two redcurrant bushes I put in the year before last had fruit on them. I got a good tub of fruit. To celebrate I made a large tart. It must have been good, it was gone the next day.

The gooseberries are ripening and the elderflowers are out, and they go very well together, so I mixed some flowers with halved gooseberries and sugar and put them in a buttered Pyrex dish and as the oven was on I put the dish in, covered with a buttered paper. This gave them time them soften while I made the sponge. It’s the same as the bun recipe I wrote about here before. I topped the softened gooseberries with the sponge mix and baked it for about 20 minutes at GM4/180˚C. When the sponge is browned and bounces back when pushed with a finger it is ready. I’d forgotten to buy cream so we had it with Birds custard. The evening had turned blustery and it made a really comforting old-fashioned pudding.

The blackcurrants are ready too and I have promised to make jam with most of them, but some will end up in a summer pudding some time soon. We have two self-seeded blackcurrant bushes that are both producing fruit this year. This means we have six bushes in total.

While I was out I saw quite a lot of butterfly activity including Meadow Browns and what seem to be Ringlet butterflies. Yesterday as I was having coffee outside I saw a Cinnabar moth flutter by and the grasshoppers were in full “song” too. Summer is delightful!