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After hours, during
which I write and deal with writerly matters, gardening provides welcome fresh
air and exercise.
A keen organic
gardener, apart from ornamental flower, trees and shrubs, I grow a wide variety
of vegetables. I also grow herbs which I use for medicinal purposes to make tea
– hot or cold peppermint is one of my favourites - and to flavour food.
I utilise the
front and back gardens to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit in the style of an
English cottage garden. This week I replanted my strawberries in the front
garden near them are several rhubarb plants.
Rhubarb, my
first crop this year, has flourished. Sometimes, I have a bowl of stewed
rhubarb and plain organic yoghurt for breakfast, or a rhubarb crumble or pie
for dessert. If the crop is bountiful I make rhubarb chutney.
In the back
garden there are raspberry canes, black currant, redcurrant and gooseberry
bushes and fruit trees – three dessert apples, a cooking apple, two pear trees,
a plum, greengage, damson and peach tree. Blueberries grow in large pots of
ericaceous compost. In large containers placed against a wall at the back of
the house are a kiwi and a grape vine. (Mind you, when I planted the kiwi I
didn’t know it would be seven years before it fruited.)
Every year some
crops fail and some flourish. Last year I stored apples and ate the last ones
in December. This year, in early spring, heavy snow fell then, after which, apart
from four days of very high temperatures, it has been cold, wet and windy. Even
during breaks in the unseasonable weather, when the sun shines the wind chills
me. An onslaught of overnight rain ripped the blossom from the plum tree, which
produced approximately fifty pounds of fruit last year.
The greenhouse
is full of plants waiting to be transplanted when the soil is warm, and
although seeds will be sown later than usual I hope the garden will reward me. By
the end of the year there should be home grown vegetables in the freezer and
shelves of homemade jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles on shelves in the
cupboard.
As well as being
a keen gardener, I am a dedicated vegetarian cook. So, is the hard work
worthwhile? Yes, the flavour of organic, homegrown food is superb. The taste of
a sun warmed strawberry or tomato is superior to those bought in shops.
A family
favourite is my homemade ice cream for which the recipe is quick and easy. I
have an ice cream maker but provided the mixture doesn’t become too thick to
pour out it can be made in a blender.
Ice Cream
8 ounces of soft
fruit e.g. strawberries or ripe mango (which does not grow in England).
6 ounces of
sugar
3 quarters of a
pint of full fat milk.
A quarter pint
of double cream.
Blend the
ingredients. Either tip the mixture into a container and freeze it or tip it
into the ice cream maker and freeze it when it is ready.
The Pot and
Pineapple aka Gunters
In 1757, Italian
pastry cook, Domenico Negri had set up business. His Italian style ice cream
and water ices soon became popular, and so did his ready-made savoury and sweet
confections, such as Cedrati and Bergamet Chips, Naples Divolini, biscuits,
marshmallows and other treats.
In 1777 James
Gunter became Negri’s business partner and by 1799 he was the sole proprietor the
owner in the late eighteenth century his pastries, sweets and ice creams became
famous.
By the Regency
era, Gunters, a famous confectioner’s shop, opened in Mayfair, on the east side
of Berkeley Square
Famed for
sweetmeats, pastries and fruit ices, members of the fashionable beau monde ordered desserts from Gunters
to be served at their balls and large parties.
To keep up with
the demand there was an enormous ice house underneath his premises, so he was
able to offer a wide variety of ice cream which included varieties such as elderflower,
orange and lemon and parmesan cheese.
Ladies did not
go for a drive with gentlemen in closed carriages, but they could go for one open
ones. Respectable females neither dined nor partook of refreshments in hotels,
pie shops or patisseries. So, resourceful gentlemen parked their vehicles by
the railings in Berkeley Square, and crossed the road to ice cream from
Gunter’s. On busy days, waiters dodged the traffic to serve the patrons.
Gunters’
popularity continued in the Victorian period, was patronised by royalty, and
supplied the wedding cake for Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.
The end of an
era came after the east side of Berkeley Square was demolished between 1936 and
1937.
Gunters moved to
Curzon Street and in 1956 the tea shop closed but the catering business
continued until 1976.
Ice Buckets and
Iced Puddings
The cream
custard for iced pudding or ice cream mixture was poured into a container which
was placed in a pewter ice bucket filled with pounded ice and salt. After
rotating the bucket with a handle for ten minutes, the frozen mixture around
the edge of the container was scraped off with a spatula. The process continued
until the pudding or ice cream was smooth and firm enough to be put in a mould
and put into the ice bucket. To serve, the mould was dipped in warm water to
loosen the pudding which was tipped onto a dish.
Sunday’s Child
Heroine’s Born
on Different Days of the Week
Book One – Back Cover
Georgianne Whitley’s beloved father and brothers
died in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. While she is grieving for them, she
must deal with her unpredictable mother’s sorrow, and her younger sisters’
situation caused by it.
Georgianne’s problems increase when the arrogant,
wealthy but elderly Earl of Pennington, proposes marriage to her for the sole
purpose of being provided with an heir. At first, she is tempted by his
proposal, but something is not quite right about him. She rejects him not
suspecting it will lead to unwelcome repercussions.
Once, Georgianne had wanted to marry an army
officer. Now, she decides never to marry ‘a military man’ for fear he will be
killed on the battlefield. However, Georgianne still dreams of a happy marriage
before unexpected violence forces her to relinquish the chance to participate
in a London Season sponsored by her aunt.
Shocked and in pain, Georgianne goes to the inn
where her cousin Sarah’s step-brother, Major Tarrant, is staying, while waiting
for the blacksmith to return to the village and shoe his horse. Recently, she
has been reacquainted with Tarrant—whom she knew when in the nursery—at the
vicarage where Sarah lives with her husband Reverend Stanton.
The war in the Iberian Peninsula is nearly at an end
so, after his older brother’s death, Tarrant, who was wounded, returns to
England where his father asks him to marry and produce an heir.
To please his father, Tarrant agrees to marry, but
due to a personal tragedy he has decided never to father a child.
When Georgianne, arrives at the inn, quixotic
Tarrant sympathises with her unhappy situation. Moreover,
he is shocked by the unforgivably brutal treatment she has suffered.
Full of admiration for her beauty and courage
Tarrant decides to help Georgianne.
At heart I am a historian, so Sunday’s Child is rich
in historical detail.
Novels by Rosemary Morris
Early 18th Century novels
Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess
Regency Novels
False Pretences,
Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child, Thursday’s
Child – to be published in July 2018
Mediaeval Novel
Yvonne Lady of
Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One
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