Play.Eat.Laugh.Sleep..Pickwell: September harvest

Sunday, 9 September 2012

September harvest

Look what we did!!!

The absolute joys of having a garden and a poly-tunnel and relentless watering each day, are realised in September.

Here we have corn-on-the-cob (a favourite),

raspberries, beans, tomatoes and courgettes.

We are so blessed to have an orchard of trees which produce cooking apples, eating apples, plums, and quince.

Apple crumble we love and is easy to make, but i think

Steve's baked apples beat even a great apple crumble (i have put the recipe from 'BBC food recipes' for this at the bottom of this post).

But of all our harvest this year, this little beauty (and many more like it) caught our eye. What the heck have we grown?!

Isn't it beautiful?! It looks like a cup cake! It turns out they are from the squash family and this one is a Pattypan squash, unsurprisingly. It comes in yellow, green and white varieties

and you cook it much as you would a courgette.

I have decided i cannot cook this one, partly because i have now read they lose their flavour if they are any bigger than 3 inches (doh!) and partly because i think it will make a wonderful bonfire decoration on our tables in November.

Where is this year going?

Ingredients

80g/3oz mixed dried exotic fruit, (such as mango, papaya, banana, fig, golden raisins), chopped
55ml/2fl oz brandy
30g/1oz soft light brown sugar
½ tsp allspice
100g/3½oz butter, plus extra for spreading
6 eating apples, cored
200g/7oz Greek yoghurt, to serve

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
Place the mixed dried fruit and the brandy into a bowl and leave to soak for at least two hours, but ideally overnight.
After soaking, add the sugar, allspice and butter to the brandy-soaked fruit.
Spoon the fruit mixture into the holes in the cored apples, pressing in to fill well and spread some more butter over the apples.
Place the stuffed apples into an ovenproof dish, cover with aluminium foil and transfer to the oven to bake for 40 minutes.
Remove the foil and cook 15-20 minutes more, until the apples are soft, but not collapsing.
Place onto plates and serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.

Enjoy!

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Our Story

Many people have asked what the story is, how did the Bakers and Elliotts come to be at Pickwell?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Tracey and Susannah became friends at 6th form college. Steve and Tracey lived in the same village in Sussex. Steve's dad was the vicar and Tracey's dad was Steve's scout leader. Even more wierd, Susannah's dad (also a church minister) and Steve's dad were friends, but Steve and Sus never met.

One summer Tracey took Susannah along to a youth summer camp. Steve was one of the leaders (read : heightened attraction) and a little later Steve and Sus got together. During their 6 on/off years they met Richard, a blue eyed boy from Guildford.

At a club night run by Steve, somehow through the dark and crowded room, Tracey and Richard bumped into eachother (if you have seen the shapes they pull on the dancefloor you would know how easily this happened)..

In the year 2000 they all got married. Tracey and Susannah were eachother's bridesmaids. They have remained firm friends ever since.

When Steve and Susannah came across Pickwell Manor, they knew they couldn't manage such a project on their own. They asked the Elliotts if they would give up their house, their jobs and their community to come and live and work with them and own the project together. They knew there weren't many people they could ask to do such a thing knowing they would still love each other by the end. So they all left everything in Sussex and came to Devon.

They moved on the same day in August 2008. It has been a crazy, wonderful, scary, emotional and beautiful experience so far. All of them would say they feel very ALIVE!

Since they moved they have run 51 successful and wonderful weddings (with more to come), many, many holidays, built or totally refurbished 6 apartments from scratch, updated carpets, painted white throughout, put in quite a few kitchens and bathrooms (including 2 baths on concrete plinths), changed much of the furniture, converted a laundry and have started to convert the chapel. Every year they also have a bonfire gathering in October, an Easter Eggstravaganza fundraising event, and anything else that is not-for-profit that they can fit in. Tracey has completed a dissertation and gone back to nursing for 2 days a week, Steve has started up a new company in London, Richard has mastered a lot of the running of the house as well as training as a coach, specialising in stress management, Sus has taken on the interiors and Tracey and Susannah have learnt weddings in at the deep end! All with 4 young Pickwellians by their sides.

"Our passion is for making life count. Our values lie in
friendship, celebration, valuing others, and social justice. We see Pickwell as a reflection of these things but also a place for rest, recouperation, laughter and conversation. We want to support charities and social enterprises to fufil their dreams and make a difference."

"We love Devon, we love the community here, we love seeing our children grow with nature and discovering the great outdoors. We have to pinch ourselves sometimes when we think about our life here, it is amazing".