River Cottage fruit
- 13 hours ago
- 5 min read
"If one food was designed, unambiguously, to be eaten, then surely it has to be fruit. We consume it, we spread the seed, more fruit grows, everyone's happy." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Bearing in mind the words above, it's perhaps appropriate that the frontispiece photograph in my next River Cottage Handbook - Fruit - is a perfect photograph of blossom. Potential. From little things big things grow and all that.
It's also appropriate because the book is mostly about how to grow fruit and all that that entails, from buying to pests and diseases. You have to turn to page 195 before you get to any recipes, although in the A-Z section on the individual fruits, there are always a few pointers to what you can do with the fruit eating-wise. I note this because this is a first recipe - and me hurrying through the very British River Cottage Handbooks set.
The fruits listed are of course British - there are no mangoes, bananas, or even oranges and lemons here. But there are melons, and peaches and apricots, grapes, the obvious apples, pears and strawberries, as well as the distinctively British gooseberries, currants, medlars and damsons. Unlike the Hedgerow book there is more in common with what we eat here in Australia
In his Introduction to the book Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall laments the fact that more people grow vegetables than fruit - perhaps because they think it's more difficult or that it takes up more space, but, he points out:
"Fruit wants to grow - you just have to let it. ... I believe that everyone should have some fruit growing within their reach, for at least part of the year. You don't even need a garden to achieve this: a couple of blueberry bushes in a big pot on a patio, or a window box of alpine strawberries is easy to maintain and delightful to plunder."
I would put myself in the 'too hard' basket. Over and over again in our life in Australia I have tried to grow a lemon tree - with complete failure. On our spacious block we have some wild plum trees, a couple of spindly and stunted peach trees, a crab apple, a struggling pomegranate bush - do they grow into trees? - and a quince tree. None of them are lush, the weedy ones - the wild plums and the blackberries do best. I'm pretty sure there used to also be a cherry tree, another apple tree, and an apricot tree which I think are still there but never fruit. But then I do nothing to encourage or tend them.
The author is Mark Diacono - another of the loose team that makes up River Cottage. Colleagues with their own individual businesses and careers, but who regularly collaborate with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Well I'm not sure whether Mark Diacono still does, but certainly he was part of the scenery in the early days of River Cottage. Since then he has written many books of his own on growing and cooking, for all of which he provided the photography - including for this book.
He writes well too. Here is a paragraph from his introduction to the book:
"Grow some fruit and we are, of course, falling for the oldest trick in the book. Like most plants, a fruit plant produces seed in the hope of succeeding in its one true aim - to replicate itself. If all those seeds fell in the shade of the parent's branches, the competition and lack of light would doom most to failure, so plants have developed stategies for getting the seed further afield. Some use the wind, others hitch a ride on the fur of passing animals, while many produce a delicious coating around the seed which entices wild animals and us humans to tuck in We devour the fruit largely oblivious that it is at its peak of delicious ripeness precisely because the seed is in the ideal state for travel. We sink our teeth in and the discarded or excreted seeds make it beyond the umbrella of the plant. It is the perfect bribe and everybody wins."
Well we don't all win here in Eltham, because mostly - unless I net the trees - the birds and the possums win. Actually even the commercial growers of fruit here in Australia, mostly net their crops as a defence system. Maybe they leave a few of their fruits on their trees, bushes and vines so that reproduction does indeed take place.
But - as Mark Diacono says: "This is a food book, driven by how we use fruit in the kitchen." And this is a first recipe post. So what is this first recipe? Well alas the recipe is not online, but it does look wonderful - Orchard ice cream with caramelised walnuts. Such a suitable dish for this time of the year, when summer's heat reappears every now and then (not today) for a time and when the autumn fruits - apples, pears, and/or quinces which are the base of this ice cream - begin to appear.
We don't generally think of those fruits in ice cream do we?
You stew 350g of those mixed fruits (peeled, cored and chopped of course) with 60g unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons of water until completely soft, and then push through a sieve. Add 3 tablespoons of cider brandy. He says it is optional, by why would you not? -and I did not know that there was such a thing as cider brandy. Does he mean Calvados? Pour 300ml double cream into a saucepan with a split vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Whisk 3 egg yolks with 140g caster sugar until creamy and thick. Remove the vanilla pod from the cream and slowly pour the cream onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time. Return to the pan and heat gently stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Do not let it boil. After 15-20 mintes the custard should have thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon. Stir into the fruit purée, cool then chill before adding to your ice cream maker - or freeze in a shallow container, beating it up with a fork every now and then.
Caramelised walnuts - toast a couple of handfuls in the oven at 180ºC for 5-10 minutes. Don't burn. Heat 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp water in a frying pan until bubbling, then add the walnuts, tossing to coat. Scatter over 2 tbsp brown sugar and a good pinch of salt. When the sugar has melted toss again. Tip onto greaseproof paper, spreading out the nuts. Once cool, break apart those stuck together.
There are several other lovely recipes in here from lamb and apricot tagine to how to make Crème de cassis - if only you could get hold of blackcurrants.
It does make me wonder whether I should have another go at growing something simple - although I'm not sure what that would be and however much I know, deep in my heart that the fruit would be so much better than we get in the supermarket, it's all just too much. For I suspect I would fail, yet again and besides the supermarket fruit is generally pretty OK. What you don't know, you don't miss.
But yes we do perhaps love fruit more than any other kind of food.
"This special feeling towards fruit, its glory and abundance, is I would say universal ... we respond to strawberry fields or cherry orchards with a delight that a cabbage patch or even an elegant vegetable garden cannot provoke." Jane Grigson
YEARS GONE BY
March 12
2025 - Lessons from a Persian Mama
2024 - Keeping clean whilst eating
2022 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
Yes fruit is at the top of my food tree for sure! 👍