Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Fruit for free

Thank you for all the kind wishes for my open studio weekend. It went well with almost 50 visitors over the weekend and an added bonus... I actually sold seven pictures on Sunday. I was very excited let me tell you! Almost as exciting was meeting my first visitors through the door on Saturday. A couple came in and the lady said how strange it felt walking into someone's house. We agreed and laughed and then she told me she reads my blog... that felt strange! We all know there must be readers out there we are totally unaware about but it's not something I'd thought about very much until now. So for Catherine and all the other anonymous readers out there... HELLO!!!

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Before the weekend I picked these cherries from trees in the field behind our house.

And I was given this wonderful bowl of gooseberries from a friend's garden.

Beautiful colours although I imagined they would turn a sludgy brown if cooked together so instead I thought I would try to make some cherry jam.

I've never made cherry jam before and reading that it doesn't set very well I added some chopped rhubarb from the garden... and voila! Three pots of cherry and rhubarb jam for the price of a bag of sugar.


I was obviously feeing creative and inspired by Amy's jam pot cover, I made this from some scraps of felt.


And then of course I had to try the jam so had to make some scones too. Verdict... cherry and rhubarb make a very good combination!

And as for the gooseberries - they got stewed up and mixed with custard and cream to make this Goosberry Fool. Uninspiring to look at but tastes delicious. And there is so much of it, half will be frozen and turned into ice cream... yummy!

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14 comments:

  1. Guzzisue16 July 2008 at 06:59

    I've just been to two open studio weekends, visited houses sometime from top to bottom including the attic, sat in coal houses to hear sound installations and visited a house full of clocks. I still find in strange walking through someones front door when I don't know them. You did really well for visitors.

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  2. Kitty16 July 2008 at 08:39

    Well done on the success of your weekend - very much deserved.

    Don't those fruits looks fabulous - as does all your cooking. Mmmmmmm.

    x

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  3. Celia Hart16 July 2008 at 08:51

    Those fruits look beautiful!
    Cliff makes a very good cherry jam, perhaps I'll send him out in search of cherries so he can make some more!

    Gooseberry icecream - that sounds very very yummy!

    Hope this weekend is another overwhelming success!

    Celia

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  4. JuliaB16 July 2008 at 09:04

    YUUUUUUUMMMMMMYYY!!! and that jam pot cover is to die for!!! it's soo gorgeous, infact worth making jam just so you can make that cover!!!! As for goosberries ... I had loads but it was a case of "now you seem them, now you don't". The birds nicked them all, every single last one of them. Humph. Funny what you should say about annonymous readers/blogging. I've got to know my neighbour of 8 years via her blog and vice versa!! Rididculous! x (oh I can feel a post coming on) ..

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  5. dottycookie16 July 2008 at 09:56

    Yummy yummy yum. And the cover's pretty gorgoeus too!

    By the way, the kettle's on so if you have any spare scones and you'd like to drive over here ....

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  6. trash16 July 2008 at 10:18

    Well done on a successful open weekend and YAY! for selling pictures. It just goes to show that people have impeccable taste over there.

    loving the colours of those fruits together and fabulous that they were of the no cost variety, makes 'em taste even better.

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  7. Annica16 July 2008 at 15:45

    Congratulations on a successful weekend!
    Gooseberry Fool Icecream sounds to good to be true. :-)

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  8. wonderwoman16 July 2008 at 20:53

    so glad your weekend went well and you got lots of visitors - even better on the sales!
    the jam looks good, quite an interesting combination! an the cover is brilliant!

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  9. Julie16 July 2008 at 22:33

    Wow! 7 sales! Congratulations on a very successful weekend :))

    Your kitchen busyness looks very appetizing. Yummmmm! And I like the jam pot cover, lovely idea.

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  10. Jackie16 July 2008 at 23:10

    Congratulations on your sales.
    I had a similar experience at the Art fair when someone came up and said 'you're dog daisy'..she was lovely. Its great isn't it?

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  11. Mermaid's Purse17 July 2008 at 08:01

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Mermaid's Purse17 July 2008 at 08:03

    It's great to hear that you had such a successful weekend!

    Your photographs always look so professional Gina and I really don't know how you find the time to do everything that you do (is there a secret that you can share?)!

    Ooops - sorry about the deleted comment - I just wanted to change a typo

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  13. silverpebble17 July 2008 at 17:47

    Oof, more delicious things. Who says red and green should ne'er be seen - that snap of the gooseberries and cherries is gorgeous. Wish I was lurking near your freezer!

    Wonderful that you sold seven pictures - hope the success continues next weekend too.

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  14. Mrs Moog18 July 2008 at 21:52

    Congratulations on such a successful weekend and how exciting to sell all those pictures!!

    Those cherries look gorgeous and I'm gooseberry coloured with envy that you actually picked them off a real live tree!!!

    Mmmm - the jam and scones look lovely.

    xxx

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