Menu for Summer Fruits, Summer drinks supper at the Secret Garden Workshop

I'm a berry addict which is no bad thing, since it was discovered that they were in fact, super foods. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, black currants, red currants, white currants, elderberries, just to mention a few we grow on the British isles, but I envy Scandinavia with their larger range of berries: cloudberry, lingonberry, sea buckthorn berries... I like the combination of sweet and sour, gooseberries should be in season but sadly I haven't seen them around. Can we grow some gooseberries for next year, Zia Mays?
Visiting Jekka McVicar's #herbfest at the Queen Elizabeth hall last night, (do go and see her remarkable herb greenhouse and garden) I saw a copy of her book, which described how to grow your own berries by keeping the pips or seeds, teasing them out from the pulp, drying and planting them. There is a bizarre interesting debate on this Paleo diet site as to whether we should chew the seeds or not.
Zia will be showing guests how to grow berries and make summer drinks while I make the food.
Of late I've been interested in using fruits with savouries and vegetables with desserts. I'm going to play around with the former in this meal. Here a few ideas I've come up with which I'll serve this Sunday. As always, expect the unexpected at the Secret Garden Club.


Berry Spritzers

Strawberry and baby leaf salad with raspberry dressing. Strawberries are still quite acid, so should complement a savoury salad beautifully.

Roasted apricot and Danish blue cheese salad. Roasting apricots makes them gorgeously sour.

Stuffed pasta shells with pickled cherries. I like to add the piquancy of cold pickles to hot savoury dishes.

Summer pudding: a British summertime classic.

Forest fruits sorbet in blueberry soup, with grated chocolate: a sorbet made quickly in the Vitamix and paired with a very Scandi blueberry soup.

Wines from Winetrust100: a new wine club which asks three masters of wine to pick a range of 100 wines, the best for their price, from all over the world.


Book tickets here £30

Edible Flower Secret Garden Club in pictures

Christina ran the gardening workshop, teaching people which flowers are edible and how to grow them. She also demonstrated how to distill your own rose water and orange flower water, so the rain wasn't a problem, we took the workshops indoors. These are a few pictures from the edible flower supper we served our guests. 

Book for the next Secret Garden Club, 22nd July: How to eat salad 365 and still laugh like these women. 

Nyetimber English sparkling wine with rocket flowers

Making geranium and dill pasta which I served with creme fraiche and pesto. Gorgeous!

 Pasta hanging up to dry over the Aga

Guests learnt to crystallise rose petals. Christina is showing how to distill your own rosewater in the background.

Flower tea was served. 

Flowery French fancies

Rose water giant meringue with blueberry syrup and cream