Halloween Tricks

We rustled up a little magic and transmuted the New England Sugar Pies into ....pumpkin pie ta-dah!

We particularly like the addition of rum-soaked "squashed flies" and citrus in this pie recipe.

Saving Seed

♥ Magic beans ♥

Horrors!

What we witnessed at Borough Market today...monster veg!

October Plenty

We lolled in bed too long to get to Southwark in time to tag along with the Lions Part October Plenty(for shame!)but caught up with the Berry Man and the merry Morris dancers at Borough Market.

The Corn Queene
resplendent in her plenty.

Neal's Yard Dairy

We lunched on the haul: Knobby Russets (1820), Ball's Pippin (1923)& Mrs Humphrey's Braintree Seedling (1930) from Brogdale Farm National Fruit Collection, Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy and sourdough bread from Bread Ahead Bakery.

Our Beauties

We decided to pick our own beauties before they could succumb to any further gales or the squirrels. We turned the cookers into bramley lemon curd using Pam Corbin's recipe. This recipe should be designated a National Treasure and meted out by the daily spoonful as an obligatory autumnal tonic.

The medlars took a battering by Gonzalo so we took them inside to blet safely.

Sweeeet... More Apple Pie!

The last of the Vestry House Apple Day apples were baked into a pie to share with friends. We tried out this crumbly pie recipe and liked the crunch of the crumble but prefer the apple to be a little more cooked.

However our pie was eclipsed by a certain Hastings allotment pumpkin. Drats!

Rainbow Before The Storm

This curious rainbow moved over the backyard a half hour or so before the tail-end of Gonzalo gusted around the house and blew and blew and blew...

Apple Day at Vestry House

We pootled around the Vestry House Apple Day and brunched on home-baked apple goods.

Our haul. Most importantly we bought a London Pippin tree from the the Heritage Fruit Tree Co.

C'est Le Weekend

...and so the apricots went down the old hatch. Lovely.

Full Of Beans

Shelling beans is one of those quiet, repetitive tasks that allow for retrospection and contemplation... and plans for delicious dinners.

Birds Egg and Snake beans for shelling.

We cooked up a pot of southern beans and a skillet of cornbread to make the most of our beauties and use up the corn meal and buttermilk leftover from the green tomato fry-up.

Rootin' for Roots

With the season slipping into shadow it seemed imperative to hoard these summer shards and shivers.

From right to left: do chua (without the daikon) in sweet(ish) rice vinegar pickle, taqueria-style with cumin, garlic, oregano and jalapeños and spiced pickle with caraway, fennel, all spice, pepper, juniper, clove, star anise, ginger, mustard, chilli and bay leaf.