Autumn Hedgerows

 After a night of shockingly windy weather we have been out gathering wind falls before something else eats them, the usual suspects are the chickens who after a couple of pecks wander away to look at something else!
We are starting to pick blackberries now that all the plums have been processed and as we trundle along the hedgerows we can see that yet more berries are ripening earlier than usual.
Elderberry is ripe in many places, which is a couple of weeks earlier than last year, and rosehips are already a very deep red. It is important to wait for a good frost before picking hips in order to get the most Vitamin C from them.

British Plum Season has Arrived

We have begun picking this years plum harvest which is fantastic, the heaviest crop we have seen in many years. We are picking several varieties of plums and damsons some of which will become jams and conserves and others will go into our Snowdon Pickle.

Although we are happy with the crop, we are not so happy about the thousands of wasps who want to join in too!

Article in Country Homes and Interiors

September issue of Country Homes and Interiors (out now) has featured us as their 'Pick and Preserve special'. The article features lots of our recipes and tips on how to get picking and make your own store cupboard chutneys and preserves.
Photographs were taken for this nearly a year ago and we were lucky to have some good weather on the day.
We hope you enjoy having a look at it and trying your hand at some of the recipes.

Tayberrys

We have been picking the last of the tayberry crop - it has been a good crop this year due to plenty of sunshine.