Currant Affairs

The Manse garden here at Ferndown continues to surprise and to delight me. Perhaps it is true that when you get older you start to appreciate the garden more. Anyway, down the narrow side passage I have found some unexpected treasures! This section previously this was blocked off by a previous incumbent, to prevent his dog hiding down there – but Bob removed the fence panel back in July, and lo and behold, there were some currant bushes. I suspect that neglect and lack of pruning have not helped their growth – but I did pick a cup full of fruit, which have ripened whilst we’ve been away,

Not a huge amount, but enough to embellish a batch of home made yogurt.

I wasn’t expecting to return from holiday and find there were still salad leaves to pick. I found a few more broad beans yesterday too. I tweaked Delia’s recipe from Frugal Food

She combines broad beans with a cooked rasher of bacon, spring onions and some salad greens, and herbs then tosses them in a simple dressing. This cookbook has no pictures of finished recipes. I used mixed leaves, bacon, and beans. Hadn’t got spring onions, but I did have a few of my friend’s home grown toms, and also some basil in a pot on the windowsill.

Then I got carried away and threw in some crumbled walnuts and a few scoops of quark [it is one of the few cheeses I can eat, and I had picked up a reduced tub in the supermarket this week]

Now that’s what I call a healthy looking lunch!

I think the last time I picked blackcurrants was in the late 1960’s – we used to bicycle out to Gorgate Hall [near Swanton Morley] to pick them for the farmer there. He sent them off to the Ribena factory- and we cycled home having earned some holiday spending money. I think all the fruit picking there is mechanised nowadays.