I’ve read about Damsons, I’ve pondered Damsons, I’ve heard about Damsons and recently saw someone make a Damson tart on TV. But up until a week ago I had never clapped eyes on a Damson.

I walked into my favourite local shop to buy delicious things ( Taste Nature) and there they were. Sitting next to the Fairtrade bananas. Damsons in a basket. Little purple-blue misty looking plums. Without any hesitation I grabbed a little paper bag and tossed some in it.

Then I got home and thought to myself ..hmmm.. now that I have these, what on earth can I make with them?  I ran through the possibilities in my head, inspired mostly by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, who we lovingly call Huge Fernleaf Swimming-pool in our house. Sorry Huge - I mean Hugh. For those of you that have not heard of Hugh - he’s awesome.  Hugh makes delicious and rustic things with Damsons, things like Damson Gin, Damson sauce, Damson vodka, Damson Cobbler, Damson Cheese, sorbet, icecreams and on and on the list goes.

Since in my hurry I had only grabbed about 300 grams of Damsons I didn’t think a batch of gin was an option or any of the other delicious sounding concoctions. So I went with making myself a small jar of jam. Plus I only had one jar.. I was really not that organised. That’s what happens when you impulse buy!

Delicious Damson Jam

• equal weights of sugar and Damsons
  enough water to stop damsons sticking to the pan.

Place the Damsons in the pan with the water - there should just be enough to stop them sticking - cook gently until they split and soften a little squish them against the side of the saucepan to help the stones loosen from the flesh. This really only takes 3-4 minutes if that!

Add in the sugar and cook for 10 minutes.

Test to see if a small amount cooled on a saucer forms a skin when you drag a teaspoon through it.

Remove from heat and skim stones and any foam that has formed. Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.

The jam was very flavoursome but also more tart than I would say was typical for most jams. I am sure this depends on the Damsons you have. Many of you may wish to add slightly more sugar than I have stated if you like a typically sweet jam. Personally I liked it like this.

We had our Damson Jam with scones and pikelets - and I have to say it was a refreshing change from the very sweet jams I would normally have.

Thanks Hugh for inspiring me to try out the Damsons. If you are lucky enough to be able to find these definitely give this wonderful jam a try.

I hate waste. I try hard to compost all my green waste and to have as little as possible in the first place. Even our 8 year old will diligently put compostables in the bucket outside, recyclables in the right bin and ask me if things can be used in some other way. 

Lots of things get popped in the freezer for a rainy day. All kinds of bits and pieces get stuffed into my tiny freezer - single egg yolks, bits of cookie dough, small pieces of leftover pastry, pizza dough and single bananas that have seen better days. Often I can identify them later.. sometimes… well it’s more a case of defrost it and see what it was that I didn’t label.

One of the things that regularly makes it into my freezer is celery tops. They are a great addition to stocks and soups and add a wonderful flavour. I peeked in my freezer today after cutting up my bunch of celery and noticed that the bag that I have with celery tops in it was totally full. Not another leaf would fit.

I couldn’t bring myself to compost it knowing it was totally edible. So after giving my 23 year old a lecture on people starving in other parts of the world - (he was snickering at his mother contemplating what to use celery leaves for and yes your children are never too old to lecture on certain topics) I set about making some celery salt with the leftover leaves.

I used a lovely flaky salt from Marlborough to mix with the toasted celery leaves.

Really this could not be more simple.

Celery Salt

Celery leaves
Salt.
Celery Seeds ( optional)

Preheat your oven to 150C/300F

Pull the leaves of the celery free from the stalks and place in a baking dish lined with parchment. I used one with sides - which I think in hindsight was a good idea - it made it easier to move the leaves about.

Place your leaves in oven, stir with a fork every 5 minutes or so. You want your leaves to be dry and crisp with no moisture left. You don’t want them to be toasted and brown though so keep an eye on them.

Once dried remove from the oven and crumble. If you are using celery seeds grind a few with a mortar and pestle and add in with the salt.

Place in with the salt in the proportions you like- easy as that.

Some other combinations you might like to try - celery and chilli or celery and lemon zest. Both are great additions to fish - and the celery and lemon - lovely with fish.

Use to season dishes - don’t go overboard though - remember it is salt.

If you have other uses for celery leaves - I’d love to know about them.

This is of course the same no knead bread you see all over the internet. People keep asking me for the recipe for it and asking if it is on my blog. I have said no so many times and then had to write out the recipe by hand, so it ends here!

Here it is - in all it’s super easy glory!  I just happened to have added in some flaxseed and walnuts into the basic mix. It is worth noting that the basic mix can indeed be toyed with. Add some cinnamon, a little honey and some raisins if you wish, toss in a few herbs and pumpkin seeds, add a bit of Rye flour in place of white - be adventurous! If you just want plain white bread, leave out the seeds and walnuts. If you would prefer a wholegrain version try this wonderful bread.

No Knead Flaxseed and Walnut Bread.

3 cups of flour
1/2 tspn of instant yeast
1 1/2 t salt
1 t honey
1/2 cup of walnuts roughly chopped.
2 T whole flaxseeds (linseed)
1 1/2 cups of tepid water

I like to bake this in a dutch oven, but really any metal dish with a lid will work. You can improvise with a loaf pan lidded with foil if you like, it will work almost as well to create that lovely crust.

Day One

Whisk all dry ingredients except the walnuts together in a large bowl.
Dissolve honey in warm water and mix in with the dry ingredients
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave overnight.

Day Two

Put a generous cover of flour on your work surface also scatter the walnuts over,  tip out your dough and gently incorporate your walnuts into the dough.

Cover and set aside to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

While your dough is rising preheat your oven to 220C/430F. Place the dutch oven in the oven to preheat along with a dish of water placed in the bottom of the oven. The water will help make a nice steamy environment which creates a nice crust.

After 30 mins tip your bread dough carefully into your preheated dish and place the lid on.

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, after 30 minutes remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 without the lid.

Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.

This bread is SO easy - people will be impressed with your domestic goddess/god like skills. You’ll be able to whip up a loaf of crusty, amazing smelling bread in no time.

Treat yourself to a great big slice and spread it with your favourite topping.

The first official days of summer are just on the horizon and the Elder tree in the backyard is in full bloom. I don’t have a great knowledge of plants - no one ever really taught me how to identify our flora, so the informative people on the internet have taught me.  I have to say I looked at this tree fairly suspiciously for a while - unsure if it was an Elder or something more sinister. Can a plant be sinister? I think so. Finally it took a friend to point out an Elder they had growing in their garden before I was convinced that the plant I had in my garden was the same.

Anyway it turns out that after looking at the tree for a couple of years it is in fact an Elder and I could have been making things from it all this time.

Isaac - our seven year old was only interested in the fact that the Elder wand in Harry Potter might be made from Elder - not just called Elder because it was old. I think he imagined replicating it somehow and casting magic spells in abundance. He had that look about him - like he had a plan of some kind. I may yet find him snapping bits off it.

Elders can be toxic actually so you do need to be careful when using this plant. The berries can make you unwell in their raw state but are fine when cooked. All green parts of the plant are poisonous. The flowers are fine. You can make jam and liqueurs from the berries as well as jellies and all number of other things. I have no idea what they taste like, if you have experience of these I would love to know.

So having given you that caution, lets make cordial! It should be the most beautiful sunshine yellow shade from the pollen.

Elderflower Cordial

adapted from the River Cottage recipe.

• 30 heads of Elderflowers - make sure you identify your plant correctly!
• 1.4 litres boiling water.
• roughly 800g to 1 kg of sugar or to taste
• juice and zest of 4 lemons
• juice and zest of 1 orange
• 1 tspn citric acid. 
• 1 piece of clean muslin or a clean kitchen towel to strain your infusion through.

Make sure you pick your Elderflowers on a dry day and preferably in the morning. Don’t ask me why- but it seems to be the general advice on the internet, and I am happy to take advice from more experienced cordial makers than me. Make sure that your flowers are not going brown - having a few unopened buds is ok. Don’t use flowers from trees by the roadside, they are likely to have all sorts of stuff on them that you don’t really want to concentrate into cordial.

Climb up your ladder and ask your husband to stand with a saucepan underneath you and throw flowers in the general direction of the saucepan and hopefully get them in. Or just shake the flowers as you pick them to get rid of any bugs and drop the flowers into a container, which ever you prefer.

Sort through the flowers. Pick off the flowers and remove as many of the green stalky bits as you can. Don’t get any leaves in there - they will make your cordial a very dark shade. The picture above is before I’ve removed all the green matter.
Once you have separated off the flowers add the citrus zest - and  pour over the boiling water.

Leave to infuse overnight.

Once the liquid is infused simply strain it through your muslin or clean kitchen towel and you should have a wonderful golden liquid something like this.

Add the sugar, the juice and the citric acid and bring to a simmer for about 3 minutes.  This is quite a sweet cordial - so feel free to add a bit less sugar if you wish. I used about 800g of sugar and I think it was still a little on the sweet side.

If you wish to keep it for more than a month make sure you sterilise your bottles. How you do that will depend on the type of bottle that you are using.

I used these swing cap bottles just bought from the supermarket - I am not sure yet how good they are going to be long term. I guess I will find out! Because they have a rubber type seal on the top the caps were sterilised with a tspn of bleach in a litre and a half of water for a few minutes. The bottles were placed in the oven.

The cordial can be frozen if you are using plastic bottles, make sure you leave some space for expansion if you are doing this. It will keep for about a month in the fridge if you have not sterilised your bottles.

To enjoy this cordial

Add a little to a glass and fill with sparkling water.

Use in a jelly along with other flavours. I believe Elderflower and apple is a nice combination, or you could try honey and Elderflower icecream and panacotta. 

A nip poured into a glass and topped with sparkling wine makes a nice summer drink.

Check your tree is an Elder and be adventurous! Give something new a try, make a Harry Potter wand or maybe try the cordial.

This year I am trying once again to plant some sunflowers. I have never had much luck growing them. I’ve always planted the seeds directly in the soil, but this year I thought I would try starting them in pots first and then transplanting them into the garden.

Isaac happened to buy some seeds at his school fair about a month ago and he was most insistent that we get them planted right away. Isaac informed me that sunflowers didn’t like to be disturbed once they had been planted and that we needed to make paper pots for them. Yes I learned something from my seven year old!

So I duly headed for google and found several methods for making pots. I’ve decided that I am going to use eco friendly potting methods for all my seedlings this year it’s cheaper and kinder on the earth.

I decided to make you a video - even though I seriously doubt my skills as a presenter. I think having a video to follow rather than step by step pictures makes it much clearer.

I’m afraid I had a really weird looking helper. Be kind with your thoughts, she’s been fairly embarrassed about her recent trip to the cat hairdresser.

You can see a tray full of the finished pots here. They’re a couple of weeks further down the track and the seedlings have begun to sprout in the pots. The pots are looking fairly manky but will hold up until the seedlings need to be shifted to the garden pot and all. You’ll also see there are some planted in an egg carton, the carton will just be broken apart to plant each seedling, carton and all.

I think this is a really nice way to pot up your seeds and save the planet too.
Thanks Kit for helping me make my first video what would I do without your cleverness!