Dearieme wrote, about the current state of the crops:
”Hereabouts everything is awash with elderflower and dog roses. Lurvly.
Yesterday I had my first strawberry straight from the garden – the previous ones had had to be left on a sunny windowsill for a few days.
We ate our first broad beans of the season on Wednesday. Tiny, but that means delicious. You can make them more delish too by chucking bits of the pod into the pot you boil them in and then separating again before guzzling.
We are also in peak rhubarb crumble season.”
……
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/rhubarb-crumble
“When the Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb comes in each year, with its hot pink, slender stems, I feel my spirits lift! Of course you can make crumbles with hardy outdoor rhubarb — indeed, that’s the normal way to make them — but there is nothing quite like a crumble made with the early, tender stuff. For me, it makes the best crumble in the world and thus, arguably, the best Sunday-lunch pudding in the world!”
In my childhood puddings were substantial “corner fillers”. Crumbles, pies and rice puddings with fruit from the garden meant we rarely went hungry.
The raspberry plant I bought in 2023 has spread and bears scores of fruits yet to ripen. My neighbour doesn’t use his apples, so raspberry and apple pie is going to be on the menu later this year if I can freeze some of the raspberries. Broad beans flowering yet to bear pods. Everything else, so far so good, proof of the pudding is in the eating. Jerusalem artichokes growing so fast I’m worried if they’ll bother a giant somewhere.