Cherry Time!

At this time of year it's always interesting to see who (or what) can get to the cherries first!
We have had a few days away and not thought that there would be any cherries ripening yet. But when we walked up to check the moth trap a couple of mornings ago the birds were already feasting on the slightly under ripe cherries.

And this is the problem- the birds take them before they are ripe so picking them early means they don't ripen at all, the tree is now too big to net so it's a bit of face off!

So, over a period of a couple of days we have picked all the ripe cherries we could safely reach, leaving the others to the birds. We still rescued about 11lbs and faced the delicious task of deciding how to consume them!
Our go to recipe is always a clafoutis, a firm favourite now whenever there are cherries to be had but a more recent recipe is a delicious cake passed on from daughter Rebecca from the cookbook "Honey and Co" by Itamar Srulovich.

Cherry, Pistachio and Coconut Cake

100g sugar, plus 20g for the topping
90g light brown sugar
180g ground almonds
30g ground pistachios
45g desiccated coconut
50g self raising flour
a pinch of salt
1 tsp ground mahleb
150g melted butter
3 eggs
300g cherries
50g roughly chopped pistachios for the topping

Heat the oven to 170 degrees (fan oven).

I use an 8 inch square cake tin with a loose bottom for this but the recipe suggests a 22cm round tin.

Mahleb is the ground up kernel of a cherry and not that easy to get hold of but I used a mixture of almond extract and vanilla extract which apparently gives an acceptable alternative.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, pour over the melted butter and mix in the eggs and extracts. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and  smooth the top.

Remove the stones from the cherries- we have a handy gadget to do this but you can just cut them and use your fingers, as there can be a fair bit of juice it's good to do this over the cake batter so the juice goes into the mix.

Put the cherries on top of the cake mix and sprinkle with the sugar and chopped pistachios.

Bake for about 40 minutes, turning it after about 20 minutes. check the mixture is golden and firm to the touch and allow to cool in the tin before removing from the tin.
I have frozen the cake in slices and it seems fine after thawing.

A delicious cake, very easy to make, that has become a favourite with us!

Shetland Bumblebee

Recently we were lucky enough to spend a week on the Shetland Isles. We had been before about 12 years ago and had a great time. This time it was slightly later in the year but we still hoped to see the birds and wildlife that the islands are famous for.
Having become more conscious of the impact farming, especially grazing has had on the countryside it made a real impact on me that the landscape in these islands is completely shaped by the sheep that are found almost everywhere. The result of this is very little diversity in the way of wildflowers and so the resulting insect life, in particular bumble bees. The nature in Shetland website lists only 4 species found today in the islands and although the weather is probably a factor to limit the number of species, sightings of any pollinators were few and far between.
Nature in Shetland suggest the decline in bumblebees over the past decade may be due to agricultural practices, it is difficult to see how this can be reversed if agricultural practice does not change to improved enrich the range of plants allowed to regenerate.

Shetland Bumblebee

The "Shetland Bumblebee" occurs only in shetland and the Western Isles.

www.nature-shetland.co.uk/brc/bees.htm