I am a keen gardener when it comes to growing food, but not always successful. Some years I spend weeks and weeks sowing and nurturing vegetable seeds, and then they either produce very few crops, or the whole lot is consumed by slugs. I have had success some years with beetroot, spinach, peas and courgettes, but have to admit that this year was a bit of wash-out.
This is why fruit trees can be so rewarding; you generally get very good crops for little or no labour at all. Of course the down-side is that there is an awful lot of fruit to deal with all at once. We are consistently getting good crops of apples from our three trees (Cox’s Orange Pippin, Ribston Pippin and Bramley) and this year we had 11lbs pears from the Doyenne du Comice tree.
In the picture above you can see me harvesting the pears in our garden. I have never tried storing apples and pears for use later in the season. In theory I know this should be possible by wrapping perfect fruit individually in newspaper and then putting them into a dry box. The box would then have to be stored in a cool, dry place. We have sheds which are damp and prone to infestation by bugs and larger creatures, so this storage option does not seem worth the risk for the amount of fruit that we have. We therefore enjoy fresh apples for as long as we can, and I cook as many dishes as I can from the rest of the fruit. We prefer our pears cooked, and the fruits in our garden never seem to reach that perfect ripeness which makes them worth eating raw.
Below I show you some of the dishes that I have made from our harvest, with an indication of the source of the recipe. There are two recipes of my own, with a quick resume of my ingredients and method.
This recipe is from the trusty BBC Good Food magazine, and includes a frangipane, one of my favourites, which works so well with both apples and pears. Using cardamom in sweet dishes may be new to some people, but it does work really well. My only change to this recipe was to slice and cook and cook the pears first, as there is no way they would have softened enough just cooking them in the tart without the pre-cooking. Obviously this depends on your pears. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1758664/pear-and-cardamom-tart
Apple and Pear Crumble with a Meringue Topping
It may seem odd to put a meringue topping on a crumble, but it is something my mother picked up from Fanny Craddock I believe! She used to make crumbles in this way when I was a child, particularly if we had egg whites lurking in the fridge (perfectly fresh of course!) The meringue makes the crumble a bit more squidgy, which is very pleasing.
I am a great fan of jellies, so treated myself to a new jelly strainer from Lakeland recently. It is quite a challenge to store in my small kitchen, but is well worth the bother. Before I had the jelly bag and stand, I was hanging a muslin bag from a cupboard door and in danger of causing damage to the cupboard (never mind the inconvenience of not being able to use the cupboard whilst jelly-making was in progress!)
Jelly is a great idea for using fruit which is too awkward to peel and cut into sensible shapes, for example crab apples. I also think it is the best way of using medlars and quinces. However, I love jelly so much that I tend to make some every year from whatever apples and pears I have not made into tarts and other dishes. If you have not tried it before, or only bought it from the shops, give it a go. I use jelly in all my gravies, and it is also very good with bread and cheese or a pork pie. The recipe I use is based on one by Sarah Raven in her book Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Basically you need 450g sugar per 600ml of liquid, but do have a look at some recipes for more detail.
This was last night’s dinner. The Colcannon recipe is from the BBC Good Food Magazine October issue. This would make a meal in itself, and could easily be vegetarian without the bacon. Slow-roast or pulled pork may be very popular and on many restaurant menus, but that does not stop it from being an excellent dish. It also pervades the house with the most amazing aromas whilst it is cooking!
I did my own recipe last night. I do recommend a pork shoulder if you can get one, as it is cheaper than some other cuts. However, any pork roasting joint will be fine. Mine weighed just over a kilo and was enough meat for 4 people. As there were only 3 of us, we have left-overs. It is probably not worth slow-roasting a joint much smaller really.
I put the meat into a large roasting tin, and added some big chunks of apple and onion. I studded the meat with some rosemary stalks and bay leaves. I then added about 300ml red wine to the tin and swilled out a dijon mustard jar, pouring the liquid over. I covered the dish with foil and cooked it at 150 degrees for 4 hours, addding some more wine after a couple of hours. I then poured away the juices and put the meat back in the oven, uncovered, smeared with a little maple syrup. I turned the oven up to 200 degrees and roasted some potatoes at the same time. I made my gravy with the juices from the tin, adding some vegetable water, pear jelly and more red wine. I mashed in some of the apples and onions, and served the rest as a side dish.
I hope you too enjoy harvesting fruit from your garden if you are lucky enough to have some. If not, you can always make friends with someone who has excess fruit in their garden and would be glad to pass it onto someone else! Please share your recipes if you have any particular favourites.