Last time we took a quick break in the Shepherd's Hut and now it's time to head back into the garden and pick some strawberries. I wonder how many will actually make it to the kitchen?
the Strawberry Bowl
Strawberries and cream anyone? Of course we are used to enjoying strawberries all year round, but they were traditionally only available for a short - but scrumptious - six week season over midsummer.
Tiny wild strawberries native to northern Europe were crossed with North American and Chilean strawberries by French gardeners in the eighteenth century to give us the luscious garden strawberry that we are familiar with today. And serving strawberries with cream was first recorded on the Tudor banqueting tables at Hampton Court two centuries earlier. No English banqueting - or tea - table would be complete without a bowl of strawberries and cream.
And if you want to make your strawberries last a little longer than a summers day then one of my favourite bloggers, Vibeke, shared a recipe for Strawberry & Rhubarb jam a couple of years ago...and her photographs are equally delicious.
In my next post I'll be introducing you to something that I really couldn't sew with out, not the seam ripper (although I can't do without that either) but the Teapot.
If you're reading this in the UK, enjoy the Bank Holiday,
Nicola xx