Autumn Picnic

Not too cold

Not too hot

Autumn is juuuust right

for picnics.

Glorious colour and a nip on your cheeks.

Muffled footsteps on leafy carpets.

Smokey fires from BBQs

Earthy scent of damp humus rich soil

Holly branches laden with red berries

Stone walls cloaked in decades of moss

Shafts of sunlight penetrating glowing canopies

Contrasting trunks of strong dark verticals

Our spur of the moment picnic:

Chicken legs coated in soy and pomegranate molasses and baked till golden

Home made sausage rolls with garlic and lemon myrtle

Fresh figs, soft cheese and fresh bread rolls

Thermoses of hot coffee

and

Simple Date Slice

 Mix

1 cup of Self Raising flour

1 cup of desiccated coconut 

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup of roughly chopped dates

Melt 125g (1/4lb) of butter and add 2 tabs milk

Mix the wet into the dry and press into a shallow tin suitable for a slice

Bake at 180C for about 25 mins till lightly golden.

Could You Give A Fig?

I may seem a little quiet but it's not from lack of interest I assure you and though I may not be leaving a lot of comments, I am certainly reading loads of interesting blog posts.

I have a lot of things pencilled on the calendar and they require a bit of homework to pull them off.

I will certainly be around and here is where you will find me over the coming week....

Tonight at the Living Better Group 

upstairs at the Cock and Bull Launceston Tas from 7-9

All welcome

This Saturday 2nd Feb ut si growers market 8-12

This Sunday 3rd Feb Killiecrankie Nursery open day 10.30-2.30

Talking and demonstrating the value of harvesting herbs. I'll be making healing herbal salve, herbal hair rinse, insect repelling sachets for cupboards and herbal "tub teas" for the bath.

Monday 4th Feb at the West Tamar Discussion Group 7.30-9.30

All welcome to this informal meet-up over a cuppa.

We'll be talking about "Harvest and Produce"

Vicky Cowan of VIX KITCH and Graeme of THIRLSTAN GARDENS will also be there.

Maybe you couldn't give a fig...

I could.

I can give you two in fact.

My fig tree is producing wonderful large almost palm sized fruit but not enough to spare for the market.

Perhaps you have a glut of figs at the moment and if you live locally, why not bring them down to our growers market and spend a lovely morning with us.

Porridge With Figs

Cold autumn mornings, dew dripping leaves and hills wreathed in fog beg for warming, comforting porridge.

I am embracing the Nourishing Traditions method 

and then making it my own with sweet morsels of fig from my small tree.

The seeds adding crunchy grittiness to the creamy oats

and just a wee drizzle of syrup.

My little tree isn't producing a "glut" yet but there are plenty to enjoy seasonally and share with the chooks too, they LOVE them.

For a packed work lunch snack, try yoghurt, figs and Brazil nuts, easily get you through the hunger zone before dinner.

Figs go with;

nuts, prosciutto, soft cheeses, honey, ham, salad greens 

and more, but these are a few of my favourite things.

Glut of Figs

We've finally come to the end of the tomatoes....nearly...and I made another 8 litres of spicy tomato sauce.

Cliff and Matt's figs are going beserk though. As we picked, Cliff and I were hidden under the massive boughs heavy with fruit and intoxicated by the aroma of fallen fermented figs. It felt just like when my brothers and I would play cubbies under sweeping branches and leafy hidey-holes. Most made it into the bag but some that I split while picking simply begged to be consumed in glorious stickiness. There is something very regal and sumptuous about sucking the jammy fruit from the skin, but also very child-like being covered in sticky sap and sugary juices.

All very well and good, but they don't last long and I have found a couple of recipes to take full advantage of this glut. The first is this Fresh Fig Cake that is baked in two tins and then sandwiched and topped with a fig syrup. This wonderful recipe used three cups of fresh figs in all. The aroma in the kitchen is pue bliss.

The other recipe I found was Fresh Fig Cookies and it will not surprise my readers to know that I was all out of walnuts so I substituted pumpkin seed kernals. What a sight they were too with globules of pink fig and green pumpkin seeds.....which made me think that if one was having an affluent week, then pistacios would also be very jolly as a substitute. Sounds very exotic and Iranian doesn't it.

In the basket there is also a huge pile of pears now in season and ready for bottling. I do love bottled pears on my Weet-bix. There is always something to be saving. I've also been busy working on new tea towel designs and my knitting of course. Perfect activities for our drizzly weekend.