The Cottage Smallholder

2009 is a great year for blackberries. We have loads in our garden and I’m bottling them and processing them for winter. I’ve also become very interested in cordials. Danny has started using my Lemon and Elderflower cordial instead of white wine in cooking. I reckoned that Blackberry and Apple cordial  and a Wild Plum cordial Read More »

I love drinking citron pressé on a hot summer’s day. This is the juice of half a large fresh lemon, topped up with caster sugar and ice cold water. I discovered this drink on holiday in Brittany when I was nine years old and have enjoyed it ever since. So this year I thought it Read More »

I must admit that if I’d heard the ingredients of Mike’s favourite childhood café Saturday morning breakfast, I don’t think that I would have tried his spicy Mexican syrup in my first mug of Sunday Saffron Walden coffee. Luckily chill con carne omelette hadn’t been mentioned at that point. Mike has a small chic espresso Read More »

I found myself up a tall ladder, with a carrier bag, picking elderflower heads yesterday afternoon. I picked about fifty heads. They are best picked when the sun is on them. I climbed higher and higher to find exactly what I wanted. They had to be perfect with no trace of brown blossom. According to Read More »

Danny was working in the garden yesterday afternoon. Studying the Sunday papers rather than waving a spade about. He wandered into the kitchen. “What sort of drinks do we have to dilute with water?” I pointed him in the direction of the Lemon Barley Water. Refreshing – they serve it at Wimbledon after all. Then Read More »

On a hot summers day when I have been working in the garden I sometimes take a break and loll in the bower with an ice cold citron pressé. Half a squeezed lemon in a tall glass topped up with iced water and a dash of sugar. It is instantly thirst quenching and takes me Read More »

All my life I’ve loved wading through fallen leaves. At their best they have settled in frothy, tempting drifts on dull pavements. Crisp, dry, and waiting to be ruffled by any passer by. Just remembering the swish and crunch gives me goose bumps. To get the best effect, keep your feet close to the ground Read More »