I can't think of many nicer things to do on a sunny, Sunday afternoon than hop down to the local pick-your-own farm, so we sauntered over to Garson's this afternoon for a fruit session. We both got very, very sticky and by the end were frankly surprised they didn't weigh us as well as the fruit.
We came home with sizeable punnets of blackcurrants, raspberries, gooseberries and redcurrants (left), plus a dinner's worth of mange tout; all of them half the cost of the same produce at the supermarket, plus guaranteed fresh as a daisy, and local too.
Garsons, although not an exclusively organic farm, works on very sound farming principles and has an admirable environmental policy. I plan to wash the plastic punnets and reuse them the next time we go. There is petrol spent driving there but it's still less than refrigerated vans zooming across the country or, worse, aeroplanes coming all the way from Chile, Argentina, Zambia or Egypt. I don't require protective atmospheres to prolong my fruit's shelf life either, or non-recyclable plastic film to keep it fresh. That's a lot of positives to go with my lovely fresh berries.
I'm definitely going to make this a regular outing, as it's also really fun to do; there were a lot of families there enjoying an afternoon out together. We had fun hunting for the tastiest looking berries and chatting away in the sunshine, I'd recommend it to anyone. Next time we go, I'm taking a picnic with us.
LINKS
Garson's PYO Farm
Find a Pick Your Own Farm Near You
Independent Article: Organic vs Air Miles
Lemon tart is one of my Dad's favourite puddings. I made one recently as part of the Terre a Terre experiment but it was a bit of a chore, so I chose to try a different base recipe to see whether the results could be as good using a simpler method.
I based this tart on a recipe in "The Masterchef Cookbook" by David Henry, p373. As usual, I played about with the recipe to suit myself, plus I served it with raspberry cream (instead of his cucumber sorbet) because I saw James Martin make some on Saturday Kitchen this week and thought it would go well - it did.
The results were fabulous, the pastry was a bit like a shortbread biscuit and the tart, lemony filling was gorgeous. The raspberry cream was perfect with it.
So, method. First the pastry: 85g of butter, 50g of icing sugar, 2 egg yolks and 175g plain flour. Rub the butter into the icing sugar, add the yolks and mix in, then the flour. Wrap with clingfilm and pop into the fridge for half an hour or until you're ready for it.
I made the filling while the pastry was chilling. Warm up 75g of caster sugar with the juice of 2-3 lemons (depending on how lemony and tart you want it), until the sugar has dissolved.
Slowly add 100ml of double cream, whisking constantly, then 3 beaten eggs - keep whisking! You're waiting for it to thicken, it took a while but when it worked it was obvious, so keep cooking on a low heat and whisking away until it's quite thick, but still pourable.
It was fine left to go cold until I was ready to make the tart itself; I suspect that the pastry and filling could be made quite happily the day before.
Don't bother rolling out the pastry, just slice it thinly and press the slices together with your fingers in a greased baking tray or dish. It might not be perfectly flat throughout the tart but it's much much easier to do and cooks just fine. I used one of those tins with a removeable bottom.
Prick it all over with a fork and pop in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Turn the oven down to 140 degrees, fill the pastry shell with the lemon mixture and bake for a further 25 minutes. Leave to cool and then refrigerate for an hour or even overnight.
