As promised, here are a few photo’s of my new place of work, sorry they are not great but they are the best I could manage on my iPhone and it gives you an idea of how it looks.

We have now been in the house for 2 months, I have decorated the kitchen, downstairs toilet and one of the lounges, with the weather turning nice I must confess to a halt being brought to any further decorating as my attention is now being focused outside.

We have planted the vegetable patch with two varieties of courgettes, french beans, peas, radishes and two varieties of carrots, one variety being rainbow carrots, so really looking forward to seeing how they will turn out. The fruit cage was well established before we arrived and we have inherited rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants and a variety of apple trees. The green house is full of three different varieties of tomatoes, so we are feeling fairly self sufficient.

At the moment we are still working our way through the rhubarb, I have made jam, muffins, a friendship cake and my most favourite of all crumbles, which only Max & I eat, but hey, thats just great for us!

I have added this recipe, because even though it is very basic, when you are first starting out you never know which fruits you need to pre-cook before adding to a crumble or which one’s can just be bunged in, so here it is, rhubarb crumble.

Buon appetito

Serves 4

For the rhubarb
500g rhubarb , chopped into chunks the length of your thumb
100g golden caster sugar
3 tbsp port (optional)
You could add some ginger in syrup, chopped up or use the syrup from the jar instead of the port, rhubarb and ginger work so well together.

For the crumble topping
140g self-raising flour
85g butter , chilled
50g light brown muscovado sugar
50g chopped walnuts (optional)

Tip the rhubarb into a saucepan with the sugar and Port, if using, I didn’t add this, but I did add 3 tablespoons of water instead. Cover and simmer on a very low heat for 15 mins, adding more sugar if you want. When soft (but still holding its shape) and sweet enough, pour the rhubarb into a medium baking dish.

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

To make the topping, rub the flour and butter together with your fingers until you have a soft, crumbly topping. Now add the sugar and nuts, mixing together with your hands. Scatter the topping over the rhubarb and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown on top. Serve piping hot with a vanilla custard or a good quality vanilla ice cream.