I started this post weeks ago, then got distracted, so it’s now well out of date and the recipe for summer pudding using the then seasonal fruits is not seasonal anymore, but since I’ve got his chance to catch up I might as well do it as it was really easy and a lovely treat.

It’s a couple of months since we were there now, here is a little post about our stay at Plan-it Earth in Sancreed, which is pretty much at Land’s End in Cornwall. I think I might have mentioned it before, it’s a seven acre small holding which runs eco-education courses and has two yurts for holiday rentals. We’d gone there wwoofing, intending to stay for just three days, but ended up staying over a week. It was a really great place. We learnt loads and had a great time. As an added bonus for the first couple of days we were able to stay in this lovely yurt before the next guests arrived.

The first day there was a bit of a downpour and we spent most of the morning weeding the polytunnel, dashing out into the garden to pick artichokes and redcurrants in any dry spells. Rachel kindly suggested that due to the inclement weather we might like to do a few jobs in the house. Andy did some work on the website and I helped prepare the artichokes we’d picked, which I have decided are an evil vegetable. Spikey and tough, we spent over two hours hacking away at them to use in some kind of potato and artichoke broth type thing. It was very tasty, but you can’t really trim them down without wasting most of the vegetable which means when you eat it you end up picking the tough, half chewed bits of stalk out of your mouth and get covered in sauce.  Not a recipe I’ll be trying again. They are however delicious just cooked simlpy whole and served as a starter. Boil them for around 40 minutes then pick the leaves off individually, dip them in butter then scrape the flesh off with your teeth. The inside heart it the tastiest bit, but you’ve got to be careful to get rid of all the “choke”, another evil little treat the artichoke has hiding at it’s centre.

Summer Fruits Pudding

This was a recipe for a Delia Smith cookbook they had. I like Delia, her recipes are always good, traditional, no nonsense and work well, or they were until recently when she appears to have gone a little mad with her supermarket time saving fake food book, but nevermind, just ignore that one and you’re safe.

800g mixed summer fruits, we had redcurrrants, logan berries and strawberries, I think you can use any berries, but maybe try get something a bit sharp or it could be too sweet.

150g sugar

8 slices of nice white bread

A lightly buttered 1 1/2 pint pudding basin

Put the fruit and sugar in a pan over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until the sugar has melted and the juices start to run, it will look a like fruity massacre like this:

Take the fruit off the heat and line the bottom and sides of the pudding basin with the bread, take care to overlap it so there are no gaps which the fruit juices could run out of.

Pour in the fruit, apart from about a cupful to keep for sauce later, and then cover the top with bread slices too.

Put a weight on top to squash the bread down, something fairly heavy, and put it in the fridge overnight.

Just before serving tip it out onto a plate and pour over the remaining juice and serve with thick cream.

Don’t laugh, but here’s what Delia’s version looks like… maybe I need more practice. I’d cut the crusts off if I did it again.

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