It’s been so wet this last week that the builders have given up and left. There is more rain forecast right up until Xmas, so It looks like there is nothing to be done except wait. I’m getting used to that. It doesn’t look like we will have a new pottery building until next year now.

In the mean time, the berry crop continues to ripen, although it will be coming to an end soon. During the rain, I am mostly spending my time inside, I have reprinted my ‘Laid Back Wood Firing’ and ‘5 Stones’ books, as I have completely sold out. Damned Xmas Shoppers! 🙂

Yesterday I spent a little bit of time in the kitchen baking. I tried making a berry tart using our current crop of Youngberries and Loganberries. They are a bit more juicy than the Mulberries that I have been using so far this season, so the recipe had to be adjusted to allow for the extra moisture in the berries.

It has come out pretty well, but I think that I need just one more try to make sure that it is as good as I can make it. I was thinking that I might dust it with a bit of powdered icing sugar, but it smelt and looked so appetising and delicious, that we ate some of it straight away, then the rest later. We just managed to save a small amount to give to our neighbours when they called in for a visit.

The blueberry crop is well under way now, so the next baking adventure is a blueberry tart.

We have so many blueberries coming ripe just now, Janine harvests a bowl full each day at the moment. This recipe for fruit tart is very old and I have used it for a long time to make prune and almond tart, but it also works really well with sweetened and spiced lightly stewed pear slices.

So using todays blueberry crop I made a blueberry and almond tart.

400g of blueberries, soaked in a little brandy + 1 egg + 35 g of almond flour + 55 g of sugar.

After soaking the fruit for half an hour, drain off the brandy, mix it into 200g of mascarpone and add the almond, egg and sugar, then mix well.

Blind bake a pastry base , add half of the berries, pour over the almond mix, then pour the rest of the berries on top.

Bake at 190 oC for 45 mins

This is self-reliance, living and eating with the seasons.