Anna Lamotte runs Guardswell Farm, near Inchture, with sister Kirstin
Oh June, you cornucopia. Gardens and hedgerows are starting to provide bountiful basketfuls of the most beautiful produce- from the sweet cicely and elderflower of the verges (confusingly umbelliferous) – to the rainbow chard and chervil in the kitchen garden.
We are absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to write and excite readers of the Menu this week, perched up here at Guardswell Farm, overlooking The Courier countryside.
This week we’ve been whipping up jug upon jug of blackcurrant leaf cordial to keep the team going out in the fields- they’ve been busy planting out, as well as harvesting for the Guardswell Grows Farmstand.
It is startlingly refreshing, and you don’t have to hang about waiting for the end of summer blackcurrants to ripen up to get a much sought after hit of that curranty goodness.
Boil 2L of water and add approximately 10 handfuls of young but medium sized blackcurrant leaves.
Leave to cool and add 25g citric acid (not the end of the world if you don’t have it, it makes the cordial last longer) and the juice of one lemon. Leave the mixture overnight to pull all of the lovely flavour from the leaves.
The next day, strain the liquid, squeezing as much juice as possible from the leaves and bring to a gentle simmer. Add 1.2kg of caster sugar to the liquid and bring to a gentle boil for 20 minutes. Pour the hot liquid into hot sterile bottles, and pop the lids on.
Then mix a little with some fizz – Saturday night cocktail sorted. With a little more sugar, you can turn this mix into a gorgeous early summer sorbet also.
Songs to cook to:
Up Town Top Ranking, by Althea and Donna. We have been packing all of the vegetables to reggae music and this one makes us particularly happy as we wash salad!
