The season of plenty in the garden and surrounding landscape is beginning and we are inundated with ingredients and ideas to make a whole host of delicious eats and drinks. Always keen to try out something new, we’ve raided the local wild sour cherry trees and are trying our hands at bright jewel coloured jelly and hopefully what will turn out to be a gorgeous sweet sharp liqueur.
The new success story this year in the garden is the glorious raspberries – simply amazing! We get to eat fresh raspberries everyday, and there’s even enough for a few desserts and a load in the freezer for jam later. Elsewhere we’re expecting a nice crop of peaches and apricots (not for a while yet though) and we’re already enjoying a bumper crop of courgettes and the tomatoes are beginning to get going – we’re so lucky to be able to have sun warmed toms straight from the vine!
The summer season of ‘sagre’ (festivals dedicated to one food sort or another) continues: we had our own town’s delicious steak festival, then coming up is a pasta making competition over in the next valley and a small festival to celebrate the humble bruschetta (griddled bread with oil and garlic rubbed in) in the tiny medieval village of Monterone down the road. We’re hoping our July and August guests will enjoy some of what the many and varied village festivals have to offer.