Here it is just coming out in April.

It’s the leaves you want to pick for their taste of mild garlic – it’s no surprise that it is related to Chives. You can eat the leaves raw torn up in a salad, sautéed in butter or I just pop them in boiling water for 1 minute and eat them like spinach.

You’ll find them in deciduous woods or on road banks under deciduous hedges and trees, generally not in full sun. Wild garlic will appear before the trees' canopy of leaves are out. Make sure you know what you’re picking, just crush the leaves to check for the garlic smell.

Then just as I thought I’d have a little r&r – this week I was flat out doing the pictures for the book.

Luckily I had my nimble fingered daughter and her friend helping prepare all sorts of fun goodies - from crystallised roses, orange pomanders and ginger chocs. (which I’m now about to tuck into)

As the weather these last few days has been far from clement – it was quite a challenge making a sunny, summer ‘alfresco’ lunch picture - here’s Jack going above and beyond the call of duty. But there again with the summers we’ve had recently maybe the photo will be bang on? Note Molly really not helping – all she wanted was Jack to throw the ball…!

After much deliberation we think something like this will be the cover shot – obvs photographed properly by Jack, not just my rough phone pic.

It shows some of the different things you can harvest and make at home – there’s dried chamomile,  hawthorn berries, lipbalms (in the little pots); body scrubs and of course a heart bath bomb. Most of the recipes for making these things are here on my blog.

TITLE HELP PLEASE:

Still debating the title – will we ever get one? I love ‘from Hedgerow to Home’ – but apparently Americans don’t use ‘hedgerow’  - so that’s out. (It’s an American publisher too)

Possible contenders are ‘Homemade Health’ or ‘Naturally Healthy’ or ‘Treat yourself Natural’…. Any ideas welcome…….

Basically it’s a Seasonal guide to what you can more or less forage from nature to use for your health; and then there are lots of recipes to make easy things – all in keeping with the time of year.

So there’s roses and chamomile in the summer, dandelions and nettles in the spring ; and loads of berries in the Autumn. Winter is more of a challenge, but I use evergreen herbs  like rosemary and I also raid the kitchen spice rack, using cloves, garlic and ginger.

I’ve kept it as easy as possible, I’m not one for complicated recipes, you want something that’s fun to make, you get a great result you’re proud of and it doesn’t take for ever.

Hope you'll love it when it comes out in the Autumn.

I think this is a fool proof recipe - even the first pancake works!

The batter doesn’t need to sit and rest before using.

2 tips:  Get the pan hot before the first pancake goes in & wipe the pan with a lot of butter using kitchen paper, but wipe it off if that makes sense...

Makes 6.

Ingredients:

4oz plain flour

90ml water

200ml milk

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

Butter for the pan

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Mix the milk and water together
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour and salt.
4. Break the eggs in to the well and whisk – using a normal hand held balloon whisk.
5. While whisking add the water and milk slowly.
6. Keep whisking till smooth.
7. Then use a laddle to scoop out the mixture, tip it into the pan swirling around.
8. cook for a little then TOSS it!!

I can’t believe that this is the first year I’ve made my own Christmas cake. Partly because my mum makes the best cake ever and she always gives me some, and partly because my local WI also make delicious cakes you can buy un-iced and I love decorating them.

But this year at last I took the plunge and got my mother’s tried and tested recipe.

As with most things in life ‘practice makes perfect’ - and this is most certainly true with baking.

While the recipe is most definitly tried & tested the baker  was not! My first attempt was a disaster - I used too large a baking tray expecting the cake to rise at least a little, which it didn’t, so it was too thin. Then it got a little crispy on the edges, as I hadn't understood the importance of the brown paper, so didn’t use it.

Brown paper? Yes normal brown parcel paper is used to wrap round the edge of the tin and over the top of the cake to stop the edges getting too hot and over cooked. I left this bit out completely thinking mum was referring to the grease proof paper that lines the inside of the tin.

Then on my second attempt I couldn’t find any, but luckily newspaper does the job just as well.

It took me a whole week  after my first attempt to want to try again - so after more tips from my mother, I now have the perfect Christmas cake - sssshh - don’t tell but I know for sure that's true as I sliced off an edge  - for testing purposes of course.

Needed:

This recipe makes a fruit cake that is very rich in fruit compared to ‘cake’, basically its 3/5s fruit and 2/5s cake.  Quite a few other recipes I’ve looked at use much less fruit to sponge ratio, making quite a different type of cake. The total size of the cake is approximately 2,500ml - which is bigger than a standard 8” tin. Remember this cake hardly rises.

 Large tin - shape is a personal choice, but I love rectangle ones so more space for decorations. A roasting tin or dish is good, make sure it is nice and deep.   Line it with grease proof paper - easiest is to line the bottom and grease the sides with butter.

V Big Mixing bowl - to combine the 2 sets of ingredients at the end in.

Brown parcel paper & pins - or newspaper.

Cooking time - long & low is the cardinal rule. For this size cake 4 to 5 hours  at only 110c or gas mark 1. This can vary on oven type and dish used - the cake is done when the top of the cake is firm to touch, but still gives a little, or when a skewer comes out clean.

PART 1 - the fruit bit - this can be done the night before you bake it.

 In the large bowl mix together the following:

12 oz (340 g) currants

12 oz (340 g) sultanas

6 oz (170 g) raisins

6 oz (170 g) glace cherries

3 oz (85 g) candied peel

  or similar total weight (39oz) of these fruit sold as a combined lot, but half the fun is mixing all these together, especially if making with children.

3 oz (85 g) chopped almonds

2 oz (55 g) crystallised  ginger, cut in to small pieces about 1cm.

Or you can add your own combo of fruit & nuts - apricots, dates, walnuts etc

150ml brandy or rum

1 tsp Mixed Spice  (this is not Allspice!)

1 1/2 Tablespns Treacle (Black)

 ALL the above can now be left to absorb the alcohol while you make the 'cake bit'  in another bowl.

 here is the 'fruit & nut ' mix 

 PART 2: - the cake bit

9 oz (255g) Butter

9 oz (255g) Brown Sugar (NOT demarara!)

6 eggs - just mixed in not whipped

12 oz (340g) Plain flour

1 teaspn Baking powder

1 pinch of salt

Mix all the above together - this can be done in a mixer.

Then tip this into the large bowl full of your fruit mix and fold  in well.

Once well mixed spoon out into your lined dish - filling all the corners well. 

Now here’s the tricky bit - wrap the tin and cake in paper and fasten together with pins - the top must be covered, but not touching the cake. And cook slowly. 

After its cooked, leave it 10 minutes to cool in its tin, then tip out onto a rack to air.

If you don’t want to ice it now wrap it in tinfoil or leave in an airtight tin till you are ready.

Decorating:

Spread the top with apricot jam (this avoids crumbs in the marzipan & icing) though it is optional if your marzipan is very thick.

Cover with a layer of golden marzipan - I like this to be quite thick.

Icing  - you can cheat and use a pack of icing to roll out, or the following:

Half Royal Icing sugar and half ordinary icing sugar mixed with a little warm water to get a firm consistency then spread on with a warm palette knife.

In my opinion butter icing does not go with fruit cake - ever!

Storage 

Fruit cake can keep for years in a tin - We ate our wedding cake’s top layer 6 years later when at last we got round to christening our daughter. We just put on new icing.

If you’ve not got a tin large enough for your cake, just wrap it in tin foil, till you’ve eaten enough of it so it can fit in your tin.

By the way if you are wondering what I’m going to do with my first attempt which is not burnt, but just too thin and a little crispy on the top, I’m cutting it into squares and icing so its more like a fruit biscuit than a cake! Waste not want not....

The beauty of this recipe is you can make it no matter how many or how few rowan berries you collect.

And make sure you are certain that what you're picking are Rowan berries, and always leave some for the birds.

EQUIPMENT: 

large heavy bottomed pan, wooden spoon, measuring jug, jam thermometer (if possible), jam jars, wax discs and labels.

JARS: Have your jars all washed & sterilised before you start. Over the year I keep all old jars and lids so I have a variety of sizes to choose from as I never know how much jelly I’ll make.

A dish washer will sterilise the jars, then keep them warm in the oven till you’re ready. Or just wash by hand in hot soapy water and heat up in the oven.

COOKING:  

Pick over the berries, removing any large woody stems and leaves. Add cold water to half way up the berries and bring to the boil.  Let it simmer away as you stir & crush the berries with a wooden spoon to the side of the pan, so it becomes a soft mush of berries, if it looks too dry add more water.  After about 20 minutes or when the berries are all soft & cooked, drain them.

DRAINING: I use a normal sieve lined with muslin – though you can buy jelly bags (which are never big enough) or you can create your own ‘jelly bag’ - a piece of muslin on a tripod.

If you want very clear jelly then just leave it to slowly drip through, but as this was not my priority I pushed it through with the back of a metal spoon to get every last drop of rowan out.

ADDING SUGAR:

 Measure your liquid and pour it back into a clean pan. Most recipes say for every 1 litre of liquid add about 750 grams of sugar – I found this too little and kept adding more till I liked the taste, though bear in mind that rowan jelly has a naturally bitter - almost acrid tang - that is very different from redcurrant jelly or crab-apple jelly.

Bring this to the boil – a rolling boil for about 10 minutes so it reaches setting point of 106C.  All the while skimming off the scum – though by the end of this I had so much ‘scum’  that I kept it and used it later for supper  - delicious!

If you don’t have a jam thermometer then do the saucer test. (Saucer test = after 10 mins of boiling, take off the heat, drop a drop of liquid onto a cold saucer & put it in the fridge for a minute, then if the surface wrinkles when you push it with your finger it’s done – if not boil again and repeat the test.)

Pour in to the jars, seal with a wax disc and label.

 EATING: I leave it a couple of weeks before eating the jelly, as the particular taste of rowan is too bitter at first, it’s not until later that the subtle flavours develop.

It’s delicious with any meat or cheese, but especially with venison. I don’t know whether that’s something to do with rowans growing where deer graze and eating food that goes together, or whether that’s just chance.

We still have a couple of jars from last year - still delicious!