Food For Free

You can keep your woolly cardis, damp mornings, dark nights, bastard massive spiders and celebrity dancing shows, for me the best thing about Autumn is free food.

Our sprawling garden and the one attached to the empty parental home (where these photos were taken) are an almost endless source of wild blackberries, pears and apples.

I'm outside most mornings, picking up the windfalls and foraging in the undergrowth.

Muffins, flapjacks, pies and crumbles have been on the menu for weeks now.

 The freezer is stuffed full with tubs of wild berries, double bagged to prevent freezer burn, whilst the coal house is almost bursting with wooden crates of apples individually wrapped in newspaper.

We had a bit of a do on Friday night and my home-made spicy blackberry chutney (the original recipe taken from the Good Food website) went down like a house on fire. So much so that I've had to make more today.

You'll need:

500g blackberries

140g caster sugar 

140g red onions, sliced 

2 tbsp Dijon mustard 

3 tbsp peeled and chopped fresh root ginger

150ml white wine vinegar

I doubled up on the ingredients, substituting the caster sugar for granulated, white onions for red and English mustard for Dijon).

1.Combine all ingredients, except the vinegar, in a large saucepan, stirring over a medium heat until the blackberries start to burst.
2.Season with salt and pepper, add the vinegar and allow the mixture to simmer uncovered.
3. The chutney is ready when thick enough to drag a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan and it remains clean for a few seconds.

(The website stated a 10 minute cooking time but it took at least 40 minutes before the chutney reached the correct consistency.)

4. Remove from the heat, cool and transfer to a sterilised jar, sealing immediately. Leave for a week before eating. Best served with cheese, crackers, lashings of booze and riotous company.

Beth, you mentioned drying herbs when you commented on my last blog post. This strange contraption in the fireplace is our solution, bought from a car boot sale for pennies ages ago. Branches of oregano, thyme and rosemary, harvested from our kitchen garden, have been cleaned, wrapped up in a brown paper bag (punched with holes) and tied up with string. In a month or so they'll be ready to add Summer flavour to our roasted veggies.

Wearing: 1970s Van Allen cotton maxi (eBay, 2008), Vintage lace shawl (Charity shop, 2011), Hush Puppies boots (Car boot sale, 2012)

As I'm in full domestic goddess mode I'd better go and crack on with some cleaning before I revert back my usual slatternly ways.

See you soon.