The glorious sun continues, as does Devon’s hosepipe ban. There have been a lot of watering cans on the go…

Gardening

Finally, we’ve had a great stretch of warm weather that the plants have embraced wholeheartedly. The weedy specimens in the raised beds from a few weeks ago have become established, if not fully fledged, plants. The peas are almost ready and the leeks are getting going too, although it seems as though trench composting has had a somewhat unexpected result. Every other plant in the second bed appears to be some variety of tomato (aside from some sweetcorn). It reminds me of the stories of tomato plants growing along train tracks thanks to the archaic toilet systems in old trains (which is incidentally the reason you’re discouraged from using the toilets when in station on some older trains).

Foraging (Finally)

We have an (elderly) elder tree in the scrub next to our house which has been in full bloom spreading its heady scent to the surrounding area. Taking a step back from this amazing tree, you’d wonder how people figured out what to do with it. Virtually every part of it is poisonous aside from the flowers. Even the uncooked berries. The plant contains the cyanogenic glycoside sambunigrin, and when digested cyanide molecules are separated from sugar and it exerts its toxic effects. It’s part of a defense mechanism against predators and pathogens which is pretty cool, unless you’re the one ingesting the poison.

Having just warned you about the toxicity, it doesn’t seem to pose a threat to life (I couldn’t find any deaths linked to elder consumption) and in reality if you’re sensible there’s nothing to worry about. So here’s why you should use it!

It’s great! It’s widely available in scrubland all around (I regularly spot the trees in hedgerows, fields, land adjoining playing fields, and anywhere there’s a little wild growth. The flowers are in season around May and June and should be picked when fully opened. Be careful not to pick all the flowers on any given tree as there will be nothing to develop into elderberries which are an important food source for birds.

What do you do with them? They’re a delicate but fragrant flower that can be used to flavour lemonade, make “champagne”, gin, or even elderflower liqueur (similar to St Germain). This year I was organised relatively early and collected flowers to make elderflower cordial, gin, and liqueur. The recipes I used are all linked in the text. The cordial took two days of steeping, one week for the gin, and two weeks for the vodka infusion to make the liqueur. The cordial worked really well combined with sparkling wine, imparting the subtle floral notes to the beverage. If you can’t tell, I’m a huge elder fan and you should be too. Once the berries are out in later summer/early autumn, I’ll be making some elderberry jams and syrups.

The Tasting Menu

As part of our celebrations to commemorate the end of the exam of all exams (FRCPath Part 2 Histopathology), I booked us a table at Fletchers in Plymouth for their tasting menu. We have had both lunch and dinner at Fletchers on previous occasions but never managed to try the tasting menu. The time was ripe for a culinary adventure.

The pictures give you some idea of the phenomenal presentation and quality of the food. We had the accompanying wine flight which was also outstanding, but by the end of it I was feeling rather tipsy. I’ll sum up the whole experience as a lot of food great food and excellent wine, and as always the staff were friendly and accomodating (they even prepared a congratulations plate for us!). Check out Fletchers for a special occasion or for something more reasonably priced they offer a lunch and pre-theatre menu which is great value.

Flavour Fest

The end of May brought food producers out in droves to Plymouth city centre. We tried some excellent food produced by the catering college (PL1) and lots of other delicious offerings. Desserts were provided by the Early Bird.

Heat Pump

Another brief update. Octopus Energy have been to survey the house and we’re going ahead with a much less destructive approach, requiring less pulling up of floorboards and utilising much of the existing pipework and radiators. Cheaper and less traumatic than the British Gas alternative. What’s not to love?