Apple Day Update
Apple Day – sadly, it won’t be happening. I just can’t see there being enough apples, and the quality and yields have been so poor that we can’t see it being worth the hassle. Sorry! But if anyone does have enough apples to make pressing worthwhile (100kg or more), we’d be very happy to juice, bottle and pasteurise them for you.
Apples from breakfast to supper
While on the subject of apples, I was impressed by Russian food writer Alissa Timoshkina’s recipes in the Saturday Guardian’s autumn food supplement. Long gone are the days when I’d skim through the Guardian looking for something to cook for supper, but I already have her fermented apple salsa on the go and am planning to try the Ukrainian baked rice pudding and breakfast apple ‘oladky’. The savoury recipes looked pretty good too. They’re all available on the Guardian Feast app. View Alissa’s apple recipes
Mulled Cider
I’m still sitting in the garden in a T-shirt of an evening, but the weather must get a little cooler sometime. And when it does, there are few things more cockle-warming than a cup, or glass, of mulled cider. Back in the very early days of Totnes’s Christmas late-night markets, Dartmoor cider maker Andy Thompstone made a killing – until HMRC caught up with him and took most of it away. He’d never share his secret recipe, so we’ve had to start from scratch, but it’s been an enjoyable journey. Mulling works with zero-ABV apple juice, with cider or with cider plus hooch of some description, so there really is something there for everyone. Classic colonial hot buttered rum is probably the ultimate cocktailed mulled cider, but that’s taking the hooch element a bit too far – falling in, rather than standing by, the fire. View Ben’s mulled cider recipe