Simple concoctions of flavoured or infused olive oils and white wine vinegar can be prepared and given within 24 hours which suits my usual Christmas ‘shopping’ timescale…sloe gin takes a bit longer, but hey – there’s no time like the present!

There are some wonderful resources on the internet for all that is home-made such as Tip Junkie or Not Made of Money – also See Kaela’s recipes for scrumptious and very simple body scrubs (pictured below) – this and lots of other home-made beauty treatments to be found here, even home-made healthy toothpaste.

Its best to recycle your own jars and bottles for these special items,  or even to ask your friends and family for their food jars to recycle, however if you need to buy any there are lots of outlets – I have used Lakeland and they have many different sizes and quantities of Kilner jars and bottles to suit most purposes.

Please feel free to post your favourite recipe for any present ideas, goold old deliaonline.com is a great website with some marvellous preserve and pickle recipes (Delia’s spiced, pickled pears is one of our favourites and perfect with Christmas cold cuts or cheese) – happy making!

Delia’s chocolate truffles – 5*!

Perfect for making good use of a cucumber glut!

Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients:
4 large cucumbers
3 medium onions
2 oz/50g of salt

For the syrup:
1pt/570ml of white wine vinegar
1lb/454g of soft brown sugar
½ level tsp of ground turmeric
½ level tsp of ground cloves
1 tbsp of mustard seed (we used black)

(Being independent, we also put a large sprig of wild fennel in each jar when we added the vegetables).

Method:

June has certainly crept upon us this year! but here it is, and what better way to celebrate the English summer than to pop down to the farm and see what cooking?

We have hay-bale rides around the farm, face-painting, games and delicious cream teas in the garden, our pet pigs, chickens and ducks, newly hatched little fluffy chicks, baby goats all waiting to say hello!

This is a FREE event with lots of free parking, refreshments are available to purchase if you wish – so why not make it a nice afternoon out with the family and learn a bit more about where your food comes from?

For more information please contact Lizzie on 07725 278280 – hopefully we will see you there (here)! 

Tonight is the annual table-tennis tournament – all good fun, delicious food and for a good cause: raising funds for Open Hands India …watch this space for the results – there are some very competitive people coming along!

This Tuesday (8 March) is offically Shrove Tuesday which, in the Christian calendar is the last day before Lent – a time of abstinence – so  Shrove Tuesday is traditionally the last day to indulge yourself. Pancakes were traditonally eaten as they contain fat, butter & eggs which were not allowed during this period.

We have found some interesting recipes (click on the links below) from around the world as a bit of inspiration for alternative pancakes. Here though I will be making the usual plain ones with lemon juice and (white!) sugar…it HAS to be: just like my mum used to make

• 110g plain flour (sifted)
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk mixed with 75ml water
• 50g butter

• caster sugar
• lemon juice
• lemon wedges

Grab them while you can and make this delicious Seville Orange Marmalade Recipe. This is one of Pam Corbin’s from my new River Cottage Handbook on ‘Preserves‘ (thank you Nathaniel x). Pam doesn’t bother with the pips-in-muslin routine – which has caused controversy in our house – but it works really well and the marmalade I made yesterday is, I have to say: AMAZING!

READ THIS FIRST! This recipe takes a while, so read it through before you start…

• Ingredients:
• 1kg Seville oranges (slightly under-ripe)
• 2.5 litres water
• 2kg Fairtrade granulated sugar
• 75ml lemon juice
• a fair bit of time….

• Method
• Pop a few saucers into the freezer compartment, so you can check for setting point later…
• Cut the oranges in half and squeeze the juice from them, reserving until later – discard the pips
• Slice the peel (with pith) into fine strips
• Put all the sliced oranges into a heavy bottomed saucepan, or preserving pan, along with the juice and cover with the water
• Bring ot the boil and simmer gently for 2 hours to soften the peel (water should have reduced by about 1/3 during this time)
• Add the sugar and gently dissolve
• Add lemon juice and bring to a rolling boil
• Boil for 20 mins or so and check to see if setting point has been reached, by taking one of your saucers out of the freezer and dropping a teaspoon of marmalade on it, then push it with the back of the spoon, if it is setting it will crinkle up and become jelly-like.
• When setting point is reached, turn off the heat and leave your marmalade for 15 minutes, this is to ensure the fruit doesn’t all sink to the bottom. If there is any scum on the top add a small knob of butter and stir in.
• Wash and rinse your jars and lids and place them on a tray in the over at Gas Mk 1 for 10mins
• Stir the marmalade and decant into your waiting HOT* jars (*its important the jars are hot then you add the hot marmalade, or else they can crack).
• Seal with a lid.
• Label as your very own Homemade Marmalade!

Note: you can freeze Seville oranges whole, just put them in a container and freeeze – then you can make marmalade any time of the year!

This intensive 2 day course is a good mixture of practical hands-on experience working with the bees, alongside the relevant knowledge and history that you will need to look after your own hive and prduce honey.

Full advice is given:

• Where to purchase your bees
• Frames and hives, different makes, pros and cons
• Hands-on building workshop will teach you how to assemble and maintain a hive
• Where to keep your bees
• How to look after them
• Harvesting your own honey
• “What to do and when” guide, everything you learn is in this guide for you to take home with you
• Protective equipment supplied for use during the course – bee-suits, gloves etc.)

£195* per person – please call 01278 662358 for further details or to book a place.

includes Huntstile lunches on Saturday and Sunday (special diets catered for)

*B&B accommodation is available at a special discounted rate (£295 inclusive for the weekend)

We are looking forward to another fun packed year. John and I have been quite busy over the last few months planning for the coming year on our organic farm. Crop rotations on the arable side of our little enterprise here, which fields will be producing organic wheat, which ones for beans and then the spring crops of peas and barley. We usually have around a quarter of the farm in fertility building leys of clover and rye grass, which is where we graze the sheep and chickens and our new resident geese.

We also have another Jazz Workshop coming up next month with the affable Bob Hitchens of CL Jazz – it’s great fun for budding musicians as well as those more accomplished, with fantastic tutors this year including Andy Barrett (pictured on the far left). We run a singing workshop alongside tutored by the lovely Brigitte Beraha. Both the musicians and singers experience a supportive atmosphere and excellent performance cabaret in ‘Le Bar de Musee’ in the evenings.

So… if you would love to learn a bit more about jazz improvisation on either front please contact Bob for details: rhitchings@btinternet.com or 07786176123

Jazz Weekend – Friday 4th to Sunday 6th February

Married for 60 years on Thursday – well done! Marjorie and Frank were joined by their 5 children and lots of grandchildren for a great party with over 90 guests, celebrating in style at Huntstile Farm with a very tasty roast lunch.

What a fantastic achievement, you are an inspiration to us all!

It was a really lovely weekend full of fun and laughter – and a real treat to get to meet such a lovely group of friends and family.

John & I, along with the rest of the “Green Team” wish you a lovely honeymoon in South Africa and a very happy future together!