FEBRUARY IN THE COTSWOLDS...LOVE IS IN THE AIR
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Valentines Day has become a massive commercial event, with fluffy teddy bears, bunches of expensive roses and boxes of tacky chocolates stacked to the ceiling in our supermarkets. While I'm not against celebrating love on Saint Valentine's Day, I prefer to keep things simple. One of the sweetest Valentines Day presents I ever received was a bunch of old love letters, bought at a flea market in Paris. Tied with ribbon, these letters probably cost just a few pence, but the romance that filled every message was priceless, and the stories that emerged from the weathered pages were very beautiful. This thoughtful gift has stayed with me and it's what inspired our vintage-theme Valentines Day photo shoot. Cotswold ceramicists Lenora Minto and Sarah Brooke have created simple white, ceramic hearts for our little shop, which are perfect for saying 'I love you' in a simple way. Tie them around a bundle of letters, or decorate a romantic table setting with them. You can treasure it as a token of love for years to come, long after the chocolates have been eaten and the roses have wilted.
JANUARY IN THE COTSWOLDS...CRISP AND COLD
January is seen by many as a miserable month. The jolly Christmas period is over, the fairy lights are back in the loft, the weather is miserable and most of us have to return (sadly!) to work - and to New Year diets. I personally quite like January - after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it's a month to reflect and refresh. I've never been a fan of hot weather, either, so cold, crisp and frosty mornings are always a delight. Rather than seeing January as a cheerless slog, I prefer to see it as a month of new beginnings. Our garden is simply beautiful at this time of year - particularly in the wintery, yellow afternoon light - and if you look carefully, the signs of new life and hope are all around. We spent a joyful day chopping wood last week. There's something so satisfying about stocking up on fuel, and there's nothing more pleasing after hours of sweating with a chain saw and axe, than to see piles of freshly cut logs lined up neatly in the wood store ready for next winter's fires. Here at Molly Cotton, it's been a busy month again; we're delighted to see our famous honey in the February issue of one of our favourite magazines, Country Living. It's always a popular choice at this time of year - mix it with lemon juice and hot water, then add a cinnamon stick for a traditional winter warmer.
DECEMBER IN THE COTSWOLDS...CHRISTMAS CHEER
It's been a very busy month at Molly Cotton - our little ceramic Christmas decorations have sold out twice in just three weeks, and the Christmas gift orders have been flooding in, too. December is always a fun time at home here in the Cotswolds, with lots of family gatherings, Christmas parties and festive evenings spent curled up in front of a roaring fire. Roasting chestnuts on Christmas Eve is a family tradition for us - with a nip (or two!) of home-made sloe gin to warm us up too, of course - and it's lovely to relax with everybody all together at the end of such a hectic year. Our annual carol singing evening was particularly successful, raising lots of money for Water Aid - we had such a jolly time. There's something so magical and exciting about lighting the lanterns, tying tinsel to the dogs' collars and wrapping up warm in woolly hats and gloves before setting out to sing and spread Christmas cheer around the village - it really feels as though Christmas has properly begun. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! x
NOVEMBER IN THE COTSWOLDS...AFTERNOON TEA
'There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.' - Henry James, A Portrait of a Lady
I wholeheartedly agree with Henry James when it comes to afternoon tea. It's a tradition that seems to be dying out these days sadly, which is a great shame. It's less of a commitment than lunch, much less formal than dinner, and fun to share with friends at any time of year, but particularly pleasing in the winter months. On a frosty morning last week, the thought of cosying up beside a wood-burning stove with a hot cup of tea and a warm scone became too tempting to resist, so we pulled on woolly hats and drove through the pretty village of Mickleton to our favourite tea shop. Cafe Violette is a tiny, shabby-chic cafe, nestled beside the wonderful Barn Antiques centre. The surroundings are relaxed and homely - the room is filled with pretty lamps, old framed paintings and quirky decorations, while customers sit on colourful mismatched painted chairs at antique sewing machine tables, sipping from vintage tea cups and using pretty china plates. The tea is excellent and the homemade cakes delicious. It's a well-guarded secret, so rarely busy, and the wood-burning stove combined with the friendly staff creates a snug cocoon of a cafe that is almost impossible to leave! After a few hours of chatter and tea (and generous dollops of fresh clotted cream and homemade jam) we dragged ourselves away and spent a long time browsing through the huge collection of antiques in the barn. There's always something that catches the eye, and we left with a fantastic retro margerine advertisement from the 1940s, to hang in our new kitchen. If you'd like to throw a tea party, why not treat yourself to the gorgeous chunky earthenware cups in our shop, handmade by Sean and Victoria Casserley. Our lambswool blankets have been particularly popular over the past few weeks - a sign perhaps that winter is finally here.
OCTOBER IN THE COTSWOLDS...GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS LEAVES
The 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' is well and truly underway, and the Cotswold Hills have never looked better. I think the best place to appreciate the stunning autumn colours is at Batsford Arboretum, in the grounds of Batsford Park - a stately home near Moreton-in-Marsh. It has one of the largest private collections of trees and shrubs in the country and in October, it's a veritable patchwork of gold, red, yellow and orange. We were blessed with perfect weather and it was a crisp, sunny morning when we pulled our wellies on and set off for a walk through the trees. The leaves, at their peak, shone like gold in the sun. All deciduous trees look fabulous at this time of year, but it's the maples at Batsford that steal the show. When we visited, these star-shaped leaves glowed such a fiery, rich red colour in the morning sunshine that we found ourselves shading our eyes and reaching for sunglasses. We spent hours strolling through the breathtaking technicolour scene, stopping only to admire a particularly beautiful tree, or to study autumn's other treasures - smooth white mushrooms growing beneath a damp, mossy log or bright purple berries dripping like jewels from a Pink Pagoda shrub. We headed home full of fresh air and sunshine, and with cheered hearts before the advent of the winter months.
SEPTEMBER IN THE COTSWOLDS...BLACKBERRY SEASON
The leaves are starting to turn golden, the nights are getting chilly, and the blackberries are at their peak. There's a secret spot near the Cotswold village of Wickhamford where the bramble bushes are always laden with gloriously juicy, fat blackberries, gleaming in the hedgerows. It's become an annual event for us to go blackberrying there. Clutching bowls, we clamber though the nettles and gather as many of these delicious little berries as we can, our fingers stained with sweet purple ink. Naturally, a few don't make it to the final batch as we 'test' them regularly throughout the picking!
This year, the harvest was wonderful and we returned with brimming bowls and feasted upon blackberry and apple pie, fresh blackberries with cream, and blackberry compote for days. I froze several bags, too, but with such a glut, the only sensible thing to do is to preserve them so they can be enjoyed for the rest of the year. Blackberry jelly is an absolute delight - sweet but with a sharp edge, it's tasty on toast, served with cheese and biscuits, or used as a condiment with your Sunday roast. Here's the recipe I used:
You need:
1.3kg/3lb blackberries, washed.
2 large cooking apples, washed, cored and diced.
450ml water.
1 lemon, juice only.
Granulated sugar.
2-3 tbsp crème de cassis (optional).
sterilized jam jars and lids.
Method:
1. Prepare a jelly bag or tea towel by boiling in water for 2-3 minutes. Wring well and leave to cool. Arrange the jelly bag on a stand or up-turned stool with a large bowl beneath, ready for the fruit juice to drip through.
2. Place the blackberries, apple, water and lemon juice in a preserving or large, heavy based saucepan.
3. Bring to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the fruit is completely soft.
4. Tip the soft fruit and juice into the jelly bag and leave to drip for 8 hours or until all the juice has been released.
5. Prepare the jam jars by washing in hot soapy water and leaving to dry and warm in a cool oven - 130C/250F/Gas ½ for 10-15 minutes.
6. Measure the juice. For every 600ml/pint weigh 450g/1lb sugar. Put the juice and sugar back into the clean preserving pan, heat over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, add the crème de cassis, if using. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until setting point is reached.
7. Skim away any scum from the top of the jelly and fill the jam jars to the brim. Cover, seal and label.
Making jam isn't easy. You seem to spend hours stirring, your kitchen quickly fills with sweet steam and in no time at all there are pink sticky splashes of juice on every single surface. But, once the jars have been sealed and the batch is complete, it's very satisfying to line up your produce, and the hassle is soon forgotten. I always cover the jam jars with vintage fabric and tie them with ribbons - they make great gifts for friends. A few years ago I picked up some wooden cherry crates from a vegetable market and I use these to store the jams on a shelf until it's needed - they're far too pretty to hide away in a cupboard.
AUGUST IN THE COTSWOLDS...HONEY HARVEST
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Crouching as close as I dared, I watched with awe as Michael, our famous 'Bearded Bee Keeper', carefully opened his bee hives and studied the honey combs. He was checking to see if the hexagonal cells had been capped with wax by the bees - luckily, they had, which meant the honey was ready to be harvested and jarred up. (Click here to buy our lovely honey.)
Bees are having a hard time at the moment. A wet summer last year and another miserable one this year has meant the honeybee population is suffering and harvests are much smaller than usual.
Most beekeepers have apparently lost 60 per cent of their bees in the past two years but, luckily for us, Michael's bees are doing fine, although they have produced less honey than normal.
Let's hope that British bees recover soon - a shortage of honey would be very sad (and the honey industry itself is worth between £10 million and £30 million) but, more importantly, these amazing little insects play a crucial role in agriculture. The value of commercial crops that benefit from bee pollination is estimated at £100 million to £200 million a year, and there are 70 crops in the UK that rely on or benefit from pollination by bees. To lose more colonies would be a financial disaster as well as a tragedy.
The appropriately-named Bee Wilson, author of The Hive, wrote that without bees, '…a little poetry would be missing. From the earliest times, bee colonies supplied humans not just with some of life's luxuries, but also with food for the imagination. Peering into the glowing hexagonal rows of the bees' home, men thought they should look and learn. Here was not just something delicious to eat, but a little society in miniature.'
Ms Wilson is right - bees can teach us a lot. They work hard all their lives, live in well-organised societies, and show us that anything's possible as aerodynamically they weren't designed for flying at all!
There is nothing more delicious than Michael's rich, 'runny' honey as we call it in our house. Drizzled on yoghurt, spread on warm scones or hot crumpets - it's the tastiest honey we've ever had and we get through jars of the stuff!
A A Milne's words always spring to mind when I reach for the jar:
"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best… " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
JULY IN THE COTSWOLDS...IN FULL BLOOM
This is one of my favourite times of year - everything is rich and colourful - nature is at its peak. The Cotswold hedgerows are sprinkled with wild flowers in July and every now and again you're lucky enough to spot a field carpeted with red poppies, like this one I saw near Hinton-on-the-Green yesterday evening. I have read that only one in 500 fields has a wild red poppy in it now in the UK... I can only think the statisticians didn't do their research in the Cotswold Hills! There's certainly no shortage of these scarlet beauties round here.
It was showery but sunny this weekend, so I decided to pay a visit to the Hebden's lavender farm up on Snowshill, where our lovely handmade soaps are made. It was an absolute delight. The seas of deep blue flowers are at their very best now - ripe for harvest, really, but the weather's been too wet so far this summer for the flowers to be cut. I took a walk around the fields and breathed in as much of the perfumed air as I could.
If you're in the area and want to catch a glimpse of these beautiful fields (my photo above just doesn't do it justice!) you'd better be quick. Weather-permitting, harvest is due to begin on the 31st July.
Inspired by a refreshing walk in the scented air up at Snowshill, I drove down to Wicke in the Vale of Evesham, to see a field of confetti delphiniums grown there. It wasn't a disappointment. Glorious dazzling stripes of pink, purple, baby blue and white flowers stretched as far as the eye could see and hummed with the sound of bumble bees. Pretty daisies covered the ground like snow and I had a wonderful walk around the field, spotting the odd sunflower here and there that had seeded itself. It was quite romantic to think of all that confetti just waiting for the weddings of the future - what a happy purpose in life!
Having fallen in love with the vibrant coloured petals, I'm planning to stock some little boxes of the gorgeous Wicke confetti petals in the Molly Cotton shop soon, so watch this space.
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JUNE IN THE COTSWOLDS...ASPARAGUS TIME
Adored by Roman emperors, revered by nutritionists and championed by celebrity chefs - this celebrated vegetable has always caused a stir. I visited the British Asparagus Festival, to find out what all the fuss is about.
Nestled in the Cotswold Vale of Evesham, the usually sleepy village of Bretforton is a hive of activity. Crowds of people swarm across the village green - the young, the old, tourists, vegetable growers, morris dancers - everyone in the area is heading to the ancient Fleece Inn, where an accordian player is warming up and Prior's Tipple cider is starting to flow.
It's the first night of the British Asparagus Festival and the peak of the asparagus season, which runs from St George's Day (April 23rd) until Midsummer's Day (June 21st). The festivities kick off with an asparagus auction for charity, with bidders vying to win the best bundles of asparagus - or 'rounds of gras' - in the county. Tied with willow strips by local grower Billy Byrd, and containing only the finest fresh spears, the bundles are highly sought-after and the atmosphere is electric. Hotels and restaurants all compete for the cream of the crop; one bundle of 120 stems, known as a 'hundred of gras', goes for £350 - nearly £3 a stem.
Why do people pay so much for a vegetable? 'Asparagus is very difficult to grow,' Sam Tippens, a local grower, told me. 'Once you plant the root (the crown) you have to wait three years until you can harvest the first crop. You need time and a lot of patience.'
After the initial three year wait, the window for harvesting asparagus is extremely small - just four to six weeks. But, if the condiitons are right, it grows very quickly. 'I've seen asparagus growing in front of my eyes,' claims Sam. 'If it's humid and the weather's right, it can shoot up inches in half an hour. You've got to cut it as soon as it's ready, as it can spoil if it stays in the ground for even a week too long.'
It seems like an awful lot of trouble to me, but Sam says it's worth it for the taste. 'There's nothing quite like fresh asparagus. It's absolutely amazing.' He dismisses the recent habit of drenching asparagus spears in Hollandaise sauce as 'poncey', and prefers his asparagus steamed, with a knob of butter. 'You need to keep it simple to appreciate the flavour,' he explains. 'Less is more with asparagus. It's phenomenal on its own.'
The locals aren't alone in admiring asparagus - it's been hailed as a 'superfood' by the likes of Gillian McKeith because of its excellent nutritional value and powerful antioxidants. Low fat, high fibre, with plenty of folic acid and packed full of vitamins A, C and B6, asparagus is a healthy choice as well as a tasty one. Some even claim it has aphrodisiac properties, though this is not yet proven...
Asparagus has always been popular. The Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus us said to have feasted upon it and Louis XIV of France loved it so much he had special greenhouses built so he could enjoy it all year round, dubbing it the 'food of kings.' Perhaps the most memorable literary mention of asparagus is Marcel Proust's reference to the curious after-effects of eating it. He wrote: 'It transforms my chamber pot into a flask of perfume.' Proust's metaphor is somewhat romantic - an 18th century physician to the French royal family was more realistic when he noted that asparagus '...eaten to excess causes filthy and disagreeable smell in the urine.'
A visit to the 650-year old Fleece Inn confirms that asparagus is as popular today as ever. The place is packed with people enjoying traditional asparagus suppers - steamed spears with butter, served with hunks of warm brown bread. The festival is held in the Fleece's thatched barn and, with morris dancing and the village silver band playing, the celebration remains largely unchanged since the auctions began in the Victorian era. The only difference is the introduction of the new 'Fast gras' menu which includes a hamburger (with asparagus) and a hot dog (with asparagus) as well as asparagus soup served in polystyrene cups. But, after a few barrels of Prior's Tipple, the party is in full swing and the atmosphere is the same as it always has been at this jolly, heart-warming event.