Parsonage Soup with Wild Plums and Miss Read's Wartime Memories.

There always come a time when the vegetable and fruit gardens produce far more food than we can eat or realistically process and store ready for the cold, dark months of winter.      We have reached that point, so veggie boxes are being pressed into the hands of anyone foolish enough to put their foot over the boundary line.

I am not complaining, but it is hard work keeping up with the produce, making sure that nothing gets wasted and that people get to enjoy things at the peak of freshness and before the pests get to them.    Pesky wasps have been tucking into quite a few of the apples, but at least they haven't turned their attention to the figs yet - possibly because they need a day or two longer to ripen. 

Despite eagerly anticipating the first baby courgettes of the season, I have now tired of finding naughty ones sneakily hiding until they are the size of a Zeppelin.     More soup.   Great for the winter and autumn, but how many more vats must I make before the plants stop producing?

The eagle-eyed among you may well have spotted the first of the wild plums.   A few weeks ago they were not looking promising but this recent hot spell has really brought them on.

I always cook them, then sieve the pulp, turn them into wild plum coulis.    I use this to top my lunchtime bowl of natural Greek yogurt.    Food of the gods.   Another seasonal treat to be enjoyed to the max.



Much of today has been spent working on the final draft of the booklet which tells of Miss Read's wartime memories in and around the village.      I have managed to alter the format, include photographs, justify the margins and tidy the page endings.     Fingers crossed that the printer is happy with what I have done.        At the moment I am feeling euphoric, job done, but I may be a tad nervous when I get an email from him!

My original plans for the day included lots of reading - a couple of old recipe books, one newer one and an Inspector Lynley novel from the charity shop (3 books for £1).     

The little book on the top of the pile is an old 1950's one about Christmas food.     It makes for really interesting reading because, of course, some foodstuffs were still in short supply.

Dated ideas, but this type of book always contains a few nuggets of information, or a recipe which could be fun to update.

This one got my attention because of the title and the cover, whether or not it holds anything useful remains to be seen.















All of these got swept to one side though.   

My daughter bought a new book yesterday and read it in one sitting.    When she was young we didn't believe that she could possibly read and absorb the full implications of a story when she was whizzing through books so quickly... she can, and she does.   She is just blessed with an ability to read and absorb far more quickly than most people.    Even better, she has incredible recall, even years later.

She thought I would enjoy it.

So far I have read the first couple of lines - and yes, it looks as though it is beautifully written, which is always a good starting point.       It is a Gothic ghost story, not what I would normally read, but I am happy to give it a go.     

Inspector Lynley will have to wait a while longer.