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Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Autumn Harvest - Greengages

greengages

In any new home your garden starts as something of a mystery.  I always think it is best to leave a garden for the first year and see how it works, where the sun goes, what grows well, what secrets it has to reveal. We moved on 26th September 2015 and celebrated our first year in Little Hadham with a bottle of organic cider at the village music festival.

One rather lovely surprise from the Ash Cottage garden has been the greengage trees.  There are 6 of them.  A little over kill I thought, never having tasted a greengage in my life.  However, over the last month they have gradually unburdened themselves of their fruit.  Little green goblets of sharp, golden, green nectar in firm skins of bright green.  They are delicious.  

preserving greengages

They are delicious picked straight from the tree, they are delicious in jam, they are delicious in clafoutis, they are delicious stewed with yoghurt, over ice-cream or in crumbles, they are delicious in chutney they are delicious in jam, we will see if they are delicious in gin!


Greengage Clafoutis
Greengage Clafoutis
They are a revelation that I can’t recommend enough.  Despite gorging ourselves on them, freezing them, preserving them in jam and chutneys and giving them away to friends and family, teachers and mums at the school gate, we still have more...


greengages in kitchen

Next year I will save up the soft fruit punnets from the grocers, and the little foxes can earn pocket money picking them and batching them up into saleable quantities to dispose of at the garden gate.




greengages in kitchen


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5 comments:

  1. As if gin isn't enough to tempt me you bring out the Clafoutis too! I'll forward this on to my mother in law who had a glut of greengages this year x

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    Replies
    1. For the clafoutis, I steeped a cardamon pod in the milk and grated chocolate on top, and it was just yum.

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  2. I've not heard of greenages before either, but I'm convinced. Especially because of the Gin:-) If I were passing your way, I would be sure to buy a punnet to try.

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  3. I've not heard of greenages before either, but I'm convinced. Especially because of the Gin:-) If I were passing your way, I would be sure to buy a punnet to try.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How nice to have greengage trees! The first time I tried one was in a light buttery sponge, it was so good. I've seen them for sale at the local greengrocers, I really should pick some up and make something delicious.

    ReplyDelete