Juicy Fruits. Episode 4.
Alys Fowler attempts to avoid shop-bought fruit and vegetables and live off her own, home-grown produce. Alys shows how simple it can be to grow fruit. With most of her garden devoted to growing vegetables, she still manages to squeeze in some juicy fruits alongside her mature apple tree. As well as enjoying them for breakfast, Alys preserves their flavour by making jams, tangy fruit leathers and sweet dried apple rings.
What I liked – I liked in an almost jealous way the fact that she has a fairly mature apple tree. I think I am envious of anyone who has mature fruit trees in their garden now actually. I remember feeling the same when I saw that Nigel Slater has a huge fig tree in his garden. My blueberries bushes are bigger than hers! But then I got both plants last year. hmmm rotted pine needles. Bumper crops are expected due to all the cross pollination if you have two plants! I also liked Nina in Bristol who goes foraging around the city! I couldn’t believe there was so much wild food available for free especially in a city. I used to eat Uncle Toby’s fruit leathers in Australia. They didn’t call them “leathers” though, they called them rollups since they rolled them up! I quite fancy making my own if I have surplus fruit this year. I also still have the dehydrator I brought with me from Australia so I can put that to good use.
OMG the damsons! My mum would go crazy trying to pick all those. She loves damsons and damson jam. Last time I saw them was in a small fruit and veg shop in Glasgow, and also in Sainsbury. Never made damson vodka though but it looks great! I also liked the flower printing on fabric technique she did, very pretty and definitely worth a try. Very original.
