Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Blackcurrant cordial keeps Perthshire organic farm workers refreshed

Post Thumbnail

Anna Lamotte runs Guardswell Farm, near Inchture, with sister Kirstin

Oh June, you cornucopia. Gardens and hedgerows are starting to provide bountiful basketfuls of the most beautiful produce- from the sweet cicely and elderflower of the verges (confusingly umbelliferous) – to the rainbow chard and chervil in the kitchen garden.

We are absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to write and excite readers of the Menu this week, perched up here at Guardswell Farm, overlooking The Courier countryside.

This week we’ve been whipping up jug upon jug of blackcurrant leaf cordial to keep the team going out in the fields- they’ve been busy planting out, as well as harvesting for the Guardswell Grows Farmstand.

It is startlingly refreshing, and you don’t have to hang about waiting for the end of summer blackcurrants to ripen up to get a much sought after hit of that curranty goodness.

Anna Lamotte.

Boil 2L of water and add approximately 10 handfuls of young but medium sized blackcurrant leaves.

Leave to cool and add 25g citric acid (not the end of the world if you don’t have it, it makes the cordial last longer) and the juice of one lemon. Leave the mixture overnight to pull all of the lovely flavour from the leaves.

The next day, strain the liquid, squeezing as much juice as possible from the leaves and bring to a gentle simmer. Add 1.2kg of caster sugar to the liquid and bring to a gentle boil for 20 minutes. Pour the hot liquid into hot sterile bottles, and pop the lids on.

Then mix a little with some fizz – Saturday night cocktail sorted. With a little more sugar, you can turn this mix into a gorgeous early summer sorbet also.

www.guardswell.co.uk

Songs to cook to:

Up Town Top Ranking, by Althea and Donna. We have been packing all of the vegetables to reggae music and this one makes us particularly happy as we wash salad!