Ever so Moorish

Just back from five days at Riad Dixneuf La Ksour in Marrakech, which was beautiful. The staff were brilliant and made the place, but we also loved the interior design; gorgeous polished plaster, low hanging lanterns and carved columns. Morocco was predictably fascinating and exotic. Vibrant, noisy, heady and hot. I think we can take quite a few influences and apply it to this very English cottage, simply because rich, medieval textures and style should fit. Back to earth and Hampshire with a bump. The dry, parched garden needs love...

well preserved

The mother ship has come up for a day so we decided to make strawberry jam and scones to snack on whilst watching England vs Algeria. Nothing says Come On England like a red and white treat served with a sturdy cup of tea; it's virtually in our DNA.

The jam recipe was courtesy of Elspeth, the scone recipe from my step-grandmother's 1970's Be-Ro cookbook. I'm thrilled that Mother also came packing my paternal grandmother's recipe books, stacked with generations of brilliant baking, including hand written instructions for her infamous Cornish pasties. I'll try a few out as soon as I can decipher her spidery handwriting.

Back to the jam. We hulled 1.5kg of lovely strawberries, shop bought sadly as my home grown ones aren't ready yet. I heated them up with the juice of a lemon, mashed them and continued heating for a further five minutes. I stirred in 2kg of preserving sugar, which I'd pre-heated in the oven, until it all dissolved then brought it to a rolling boil and timed for four minutes. I popped a dollop on a cold plate, left it for a minute and then pushed it about to see if it wrinkled up. Happy joy, it did first time so we decanted it into sterilized kilner jars.

Meanwhile, we made a quick batch of scones; 200g of SR flour with 2oz butter rubbed in (excuse the mixed measuring but the Be-Ro book is decidedly pre-metric). I stirred in 1oz of sugar and a quarter of a pint of milk with an egg whisked in. Then to the floured chopping board to knead the dough and roll it out. I'd advise rolling it out to 2cm thickness for nice, high scones. Into the oven at 22oc for ten minutes. Serve with clotted cream, butter and fresh strawberry jam. She shoots, she scores! Back of the net...

picnicery

A picnic with homegrown cut and come again and violas. Reading 'Gentlemen Of The Road' by Michael Chabon, drinking elderflower cordial, enjoying the sun.

cordially yours

Having a first stab at making eldeflower cordial, based on a recipe by the much missed Elspeth Thompson...

Pick ten heads of elderflower in full bloom

Check them thoroughly for bugs and spiders

Place in a large bowl and pour over a pint and a half of boiling water

Add a pound and a half of caster sugar and four lemons with skin and rind cut away

Crush the lemons, stir till the sugar dissolves

Cover with a wet cloth and leave for 48 hours in a cool, dark spot

Sieve through muslin and decant into bottles

The cordial will keep for a few weeks or can be frozen

black and white

The garden is so colourful at the moment, it seems silly to show it in black and white. But it feels timeless seeing it like this, and I like that very much.

some day my plants will come

Our plantlets from Rocket Gardens have arrived, including kale, cabbages, all kinds of beans, courgettes, lettuces red and green, beets, red mustard, cauliflower and cavolo nero.

A late night of planting out means our waiting raised beds are finally growing more than just shallots. I've set out a bed for brassicas, one for beans and peas, another for the courgettes and a third for two sisters planting, in the form of butternut squash and purple climbing beans. Once the lollo rosso and iceberg is eaten I'll transplant the Turks Turban squash and sweetcorn then wait for the whole kaboodle to get growing.