The Village Fair

Sorry, a non home keeping related post for today. That's because this week there's hardly been time for any home keeping (shock horror! - just kidding, we all need a break). It's been the once a year Village Fair week.

It's just one of the things I really love about living in a village. Our village is not very big, but since we are a full time working couple without kids, we don't always get to see or meet everyone here... but for one week a year, everyone seems to come out of the woodwork. It's kind of a 'twee' village fair, nothing too big, elaborate or fancy really (as you'll see from the photos). During this week villagers open their gardens for some tea and scones, we have the big breakfast morning in the village hall, and of course on the Saturday we have the float procession (all the floats being pulled by the local farmers on their tractors) that ends at the school field for the main event which includes performances by the children and stalls selling plants, food and homemade goods.

Every year I like to bake a cake for the Fair (the cake stand collects money for the Church), and this year I made some pink cupcakes with white fondant roses - sorry, I forgot to take a picture. But I thought you might like to see some photos of the marching band and some of the floats.



The Village Fair Queen on a sledge

The nursery float - sweet!
We were so lucky to have had good weather this year, it makes all the difference to the fair, and today being a lovely day we went and had some scones in the most amazing garden I've ever come across - it certainly has inspired me to make more of our garden. So while we're on the subject of good weather and gardens... some of you might remember that I planted some seeds a while ago, and posted this picture.

Well, look what has become of those seeds now! I am so pleased that my seeds have actually grown into something and I've managed to keep them alive. I'll be planting them out soon and will keep you posted. There are some Verbena, Cephelaphora, Laura Ashley Poppies (yup, you can get Laura Ashley seeds!) and Evening Primroses in my greenhouse.

And I hope you don't mind, but I thought you might like to see what else is growing in my garden...

I have a tomato plant...Some broad beans...
Coral coloured poppies out the front...


Geraniums given to me by some friends...Oh, and... sorry, this one isn't from my garden. He's just a tired dog because he too went to the Fair and ate too much.
I hope your week is filled with some sunshine and lots of things to eat too.
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Rhubarb Crumble and gardening

It's been a bit cooler here this week, but my spring cleaning is still underway. Mr Laundrybasketcase was in the mood for a Rhubarb crumble and I found a delicious recipe by Gordon Ramsay which I highly recommend. Rhubarb is of course in season now in the UK, so it's perfect timing, and you should be able to find some delicious fresh rhubarb from a farmer's market now. My gardening skills are not quite good enough to grow my own, but I'm hoping to try it next year. In the meantime try out this recipe - it's got a couple of tweaks from the original.

Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble

• 500g rhubarb, trimmed
• 2-3 inch piece of ginger
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 40g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• Splash of Calvados
  

For the crumble

• 50g oats
• 100g plain flour
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• 45g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 75g demerara sugar
• Clotted cream or ice cream, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/gas 6.

2. Cut the rhubarb into 2 inch pieces and halve lengthways if the stems are thick. Peel the ginger.

3. Gently heat the sugar in a pan until dissolved and beginning to caramelise. Add the rhubarb and grate in the ginger. Toss to coat. Gradually add the butter and shake the pan to combine. Allow the rhubarb to caramelise evenly, turning if necessary. Add a splash of dark rum and stand back as the alcohol may flambé. Cook for a further minute until the sauce is thick and syrupy and rhubarb is breaking down.

4. To make the crumble topping place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until evenly combined (if you want to make your crumble mixture a little stickier also add a splash of water at this stage). Transfer the mixture to a bowl until ready to use.

5. Spoon the caramelised rhubarb into the bottom of 4 small individual serving dishes. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.

6. Remove from the oven and serve with a spoonful of clotted cream.

Mmmm... it really is tasty, and I think the reason this recipe is so great is because of the caramelised sugar, yum!

As I mentioned before, I'm a bit of a novice to gardening, but I'm keen to learn. Our back garden has allot of work that needs doing, so I started last year with the front garden. This is what the front looked like when we first moved in.

And this is how it looks now. My next plan is to replace the front path with some stepping stones.

I've also bought a propagator and I'm attempting to grow some verbenas. I've only just planted them last weekend, so I'll keep you posted as they are growing.

Are you any good at gardening? And how's your spring cleaning coming along?
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