writing, ideas, food, utopia
The only blackberries that really taste of anything are the ones you find in the hedgerow in late summer and early autumn. They are usually much smaller than the ones in the supermarket punnets, but their flavour is intense. When I was little we’d spend weekend after weekend filling buckets with fruit from the fields… Continue reading Bramble (blackberry) chutney
Almost all the chutney I make ends up looking a dark brownish black, mainly because it is made with dark fruit and/or dark brown sugar. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that even though the different versions might taste different, they do all tend to look the same. This time, I was… Continue reading Apricot chutney with a touch of wild cherry
A good ripe apricot is one of the joys of summer, but a woolly one is one of its cruellest disappointments. Living in central London means I am at the mercy of the fruit-sellers, and at best I only have a 50/50 chance of getting a good one. So, whenever I find myself in a… Continue reading Fresh apricot jam
Some of the most delicious olives I have ever tasted were the ones foraged from the grounds of a friend's house near Vence in the south of France. The huge old tree had obviously produced a massive crop, and when I visited in spring the ground was littered with the tiny fruit, shrivelled by the… Continue reading Black olives
It is almost midsummer, the magic date around which green or wet walnuts (from the walnut tree Juglans regia) must be picked. If you want to pickle or preserve them, or soak them in wine to make vin de noix (or walnut vinegar, depending on how it goes), you'll need them to be soft enough to… Continue reading Wet walnuts
Jane Levi 