Hip Hip Hooray
- Scones & Sunflowers
- Sep 19, 2020
- 4 min read
Hip Hip ‘Berray’ - a celebration of Summer! Fruits, hips, berries, stones, pips, seeds!
The UK berry industry is worth approximately £1.58bn! With lockdown and many more of us looking to our gardens and outside spaces however small for diversion and inspiration it’s not surprising that the sale of berries this year has been strong.
“There are three underlying factors [to the sector’s positive performance],” “There’s an increased interest in fresh fruit for health reasons, increased footfall in supermarkets and an increase in the number of people at home in the UK in the summer.”
British Summer Fruits chairman Nick Marston.
When I started researching fruits, berries and hips I didn’t realise there were so many differences! So when is a fruit a hip or indeed a berry? A fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. There are simple, aggregate, multiple and accessory fruits. A berry has one or more seeds within a single structure. The rose hip, is the accessory fruit of the rose plant.
There are a few other terms:
Drupes (any fruit, e.g. a cherry, plum, that has an outer skin, pulpy middle and a hard/woody inner shell usually enclosing a single seed (stone).
Triploids, cultivated seedless fruits.
Pomes, a fruit consisting of a fleshy outer part and a tough central core which contains the seeds, e.g. an apple. As the terms are clarified by structures, technically a Pome is an accessory fruits.
If you wish to explore the botany in greater detail I have listed a variety of sources within the acknowledgements, however, this blog is about celebrating and more importantly eating all things berries, fruits and hips!
My Six Berry-licious Creations
Below are six great ways to enjoy the summer and early autumn fruit that’s available.
1) Blackberry and Apple Scones with Vanilla Cream
This recipe was inspired by The National Trust together with our lovely friend Greg. Greg loves Blackberry and Apple Crumble but of course my love is anything to do with a scone! The National Trust Book of Scones gives the basic recipe (do make them!) but I have tweaked the finished dish to be more of a pudding in nature as a nod to Greg. To that end I have served the scones with a Creme Patisserie accompaniment together with extra Blackberries.
Top Tip - Don’t make the dough too wet initially as the addition of the blackberries creates more liquid!
2) Pancakes with Poached Plums & Vanilla Ice-Cream
When I asked Odds and Mends UK (Midlands based Vintage and Homeware Treasures) for their favourite berry dish the response was a definite ‘Strawberry Pancakes’. For seasonal availability I have tweaked the fruit to plums, added almond and aniseed elements with the end result being a heavenly combination. Visit the Scones & Sunflowers recipe web pages for the ingredients and method.
Top Tip - The plums can be used in so many ways, a topping to rice pudding; served with honey or natural yoghurt. But leave out the alcoholic part if you are wanting to have it for breakfast with granola!
3) Blueberry Spritz
This drink introduced me to THYME SYRUP and uses one of my favourite superfoods the Blueberry! My goodness the infused thyme is revolutionary and something I will use in other recipes aswell. My passions are usually all things food, but I HAD to include this fabulous drink for the #thymesyrup enlightenment! Big thanks to Lucy Kehoe for introducing me to all the recipes available from Food and Travel Magazine, it’s my online ‘go to’ when I am feeling in need of inspiration! Mix the cocktail today!
Top Tip - If you don’t have sparkling wine then substitute white white and soda. Personally I like to upgrade to Champagne!
4) Sausage and Blackberry Salad
Salads! Mix them up, turn them around and create something new. Blackberries are often paired with venison and beef. I have made this salad into more of an everyday dish. A combination of comfort food with a superfood salad. Full details of the recipe on the website.
Top Tip - The provenance of food is becoming more and more important. Somehow this dish tastes even better when you source foods with low air miles. Being in the UK I used Spinach from Lincolnshire, Blackberries from Perthshire and sausages from Hampshire - ok so I need to work on the #roadmiles !
5) Raspberry and Rose Victoria Sponge
Rose petals, rose water, rose hips - I need to take the plunge and experiment with all things #rose. The cakes in the photos below were devoured at a recent visit to The Pavilion Tearoom at Stansted Park (Hampshire). Cherry & Almond Slice was also in the mix so I have included as a nod to cherries. I cannot take the credit of even tempting to make these delicious afternoon treats but watch this space for more Rose inspired recipes! I can feel a Rosehip Cordial coming along?
6) Hazlenut Flower Biscuits
My final creation was inspired by my talented sister who is heather_andhome, beautiful handmade textiles such as lavender hearts, bunting and key-rings. I know Heather loves homemade jam which gave me the opportunity to make my ‘Hazlenut Flower Biscuits’.
These biscuits are a variation of the ‘Jammy Dodger’. The base recipe is from the #GBBO Candice Browns’ cookery book ‘Comfort’, Macademia Nut & Raspberry Jam Biscuits. However, I use hazlenuts instead of macademia nuts and my own homemade mixed berry jam for the centre. I then use my flower cookie cutters to create the flower shape.
Three Cheers!
I know I have left so many berries out of my top six! What about sloes, loganberries, redcurrrants, blackcurrants. In addition there are so many berries that are yet to become mainstream e.g. the Fuscia Berry.
And so the expectation for Summer 2021 begins, let’s set our intentions for the garden, for the allotment, for the hanging basket. Let’s fill them with all sorts of #berries, #fruits and #hips.
So let's say #threecheers to Fruit to Berries to Hips! Hip Hip Hooray!
Acknowledgements
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