Figs in the Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is planted with a mix of fruit and flowers.  The boundaries are made up of espaliered apple trees, passion flowers, thornless blackberries, willow and roses.

The ‘door arbour’ has grape vines from which hang bunches of sweet black grapes in early autumn.

Hops also twine their way up the edges of the door arbour having escaped from the pergola they were meant to cover until, one day, a fig tree will provide a shady spot to sit.

This year, for the first time since it was planted, the fig tree has produced a bountiful crop of figs.

One of our followers on Instagram suggested make fig jam.   Perhaps to sell to Members and friends through the site shop.

How to eat figs

As well as just eating them fresh from the tree, a simple way to enjoy figs is just to cut them into wedges and add to salads. The classic starter is to wrap them  in parma ham .  They’re are also delicious raw on a cheese board instead of grapes. They can be grilled or roasted which makes them even sweeter.  Here are a few ideas ideas for delicious deserts that can be made with figs:

Courgette glut?

It’s that time in the allotment year when, if you are lucky, you have a glut of courgettes.   These summer squash are incredibly versatile and can be used in savory and sweet dishes.

Here’s a few of my favourite courgette recipes:

If you want to try something a bit different, below is my favourite courgette loaf cake recipe.

Courgette cake (cuts into 10-12 slices).

60g raisins (or pecans/walnuts)

180g golden caster sugar

185ml light olive oil

3 eggs

280g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

380g courgettes coarsely grated

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Gas 4). Butter a 12 x 4 inch loaf tin.

Method

Beat the sugar with the oil and vanilla until smooth and then add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Keep on beating until you have a thick, yet light and fluffy batter. Sift in the flower, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add a pinch of salt and the courgettes, several good grinds of black pepper and the lemon zest and fold together well. Gently stir the raisins into the the batter.

Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 55-60 mins (it took me 75 mins) until a skewer poked into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Leave the tin on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before turning the loaf out onto the rack to cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature, buttered if you like. Well wrapped up, this stays moist and soft for days and it toasts well even after it’s lost its moistness.

Note: If using walnuts or pecans toast them in the oven first by spreading them on a baking tray and heating them in the oven until they are just crisp and lightly roasted then remove them and allow to cool. Then coarsely chop them before stirring into the batter.

Harvest Lunch

harvest_lunch

All Dorset Road Allotments Plotholders are invited to join our Harvest Lunch on Sunday 13th September at 12:30 pm. If you would like to come, please contribute by bringing a dish of food to share. A list of foods/dishes are in the Clubhouse for you to put your name against. If you want to bring something different, please let us know (dorsetroadallotments@gmail.com) so that the list can be adjusted.