Harvest

Continuing yesterday’s theme of gathering-in or harvesting, here are some Victoria plums brought in by one of the GPs, who has a glut. I wasn’t at that surgery today but got the message about them and requested for ‘some’ to be put aside for me. Imagine my surprise at 6pm when I realised that ‘some’ actually translated into ‘quite a lot!’ I’d been expecting about a dozen.

We can preserve them in wine syrup (I’ve done this before) and in this way we can carry on tasting summer throughout the winter.

Speaking of ancient cookery books, from whence came the plums-in-port-wine recipe, aren’t the photographs in old recipe books unappealing? Not just because they are two-coloured or brownish, but because fashions change. I am so glad I missed having to make dinner party food in the 1970s!

There is in my family, a legendary recipe that I invented and typed out as ‘Cjeese and fish pid’ when I was about 12 and practising typing. In the book today, I discovered s possible origins: ‘Fish pie with cheese custard’. Yuk! Custard should never contain cheese, though no doubt someone will set me right on the supposed joys of savoury custard ….