An abundance of autumn fruit

As the last of the summer berries start to disappear these are replaced with the equally welcome autumn fruits, apples, pears, blackberries and plums are all ripening in the next few weeks

Hello friends

This week I have been at my holiday cottages in Suffolk. And as is usual when I’m there I spend a lot of time out in the garden. It’s a complete change from day to day London life.

The weather has been a bit of a mixed bag with one day a bit too hot for gardening, wet and a torrential downpour on another and the rest somewhere in between. I almost got drenched when I cycled into the near-by town for supplies and back the long way via the pretty Suffolk villages.

I managed to forget my laptop charger and for the first couple of days I had the perfect excuse not to be tied to my computer until a replacement via Amazon arrived. So I spent my time gardening, painting the back wall and a lot of cooking in the kitchen instead. Once it did arrive, I was still reluctant to spend too much time at my desk.

As summer turns to autumn, the autumnal fruits come into their own. There are still plenty of blackberries to be found in the hedgerows. In our cottage garden, we have two apple trees and a plum tree. This year has not been a particularly good crop, none the less, I picked, sliced and juiced most of the apples from the Discovery apple tree in a single day. Now I have 7 litres of delicious apple juice in the freezer. Discovery apples have a lovely sweet taste but are not good keepers so this is a good way of not letting them go to waste.

I also now have a stack of apple cakes in the freezer, using some of the windfalls from the Bramley apple tree. I use the recipe linked below but bake in loaf tins as they stack neatly in the freezer.

from left to right: Apples cooking to make apple jelly, apple cakes cooling for the freezer, bottle of my freshly squeezed apple juice.

I made a batch of Roasted plum jam which I have yet to taste. I’m hoping its OK as I got distracted watching the sparrows squabbling at the bird feeder and it caught and burnt on the bottom of the pan in the last few minutes of boiling. Done correctly this is a really delicious jam, and one of my favourites, so I hope the burnt flavour hasn’t come through now I’ve potted it up.

And as I write, there is a pan full of Bramley apples simmering on the stove to make Apple jelly.

When I was at my desk I updated my Easy fruit Crumble with Panela sugar recipe on Only Crumbs Remain that is also made with Autumn fruits. Panela is an unrefined sugar which is delicious but the crumble can also be made with light muscovado sugar instead.

That’s it for now. Until next time.

Have a delicious week

.

Easy Apple and Cinnamon Tray Bake – Recipes Made Easy

With lots of pieces of apple, this apple and cinnamon traybake is quick and easy to make and packed full of flavour. A perfect everyday treat that is made for sharing.

Apple Jelly – Recipes Made Easy

Apple Jelly is a versatile preserve that's simple to make and perfect for using up a glut of apples. A delicious alternative to jam as a spread on bread or a filling for cakes

Roasted Plum Jam – Recipes Made Easy

Roasted plum jam with its almost caramelised chewy sweet pieces is a delicious variation on a basic plum jam. Roasting the fruit first intensifies the flavour and also means its really easy to remove the stones too.

Easy Fruit Crumble – Only Crumbs Remain

How about trying this comforting fruit crumble recipe, perfect for the colder months.  It is made even more tasty with the use of panela, an unrefined sugar made from organic dried sugarcane juice, which has the lovely natural aroma of toffee.