The saying “if life gives you lemons…” has never been very applicable to Barcombe because we don’t grow any citrus. (We do have a rampant lemon balm bush at the bottom of one of our glasshouses though, if anyone wants some to brew a cup of delicious herbal tea?). 

Life hasn’tliterally given us any lemons anyway, or any more than we ordered from our suppliers in Spain, and metaphorically speaking, whist this soggy summer has made outdoor weeding inconceivable, it hasn’t turned things too sour so far (just very grassy). 

What life has given us is a lot of green peppers! This time last year we were already picking punnets of our red, orange and yellow ‘lunchbox’ variety but right now they are resolutely unripe. 
Now, we aren’t about to suggest anyone tries making lemonade out of them, but applying the same creative spirit to the situation, we’ve found something they are absolutely perfect for. Something their more sugary future selves wouldn’t be so well suited to. This something is an outrageously good Sicilian inspired risotto from one of our favourite cooks, Anna Jones. She goes as far as to say it’s her all-time favourite risotto and honestly, we tend to agree. The slight bitterness of the sun-deprived peppers is paired with sweetly pungent basil, roasted pistachios and a zing of our friend the lemon to create a bright green plate of heaven. We love it so much we want everyone to try it: find the recipe here and the star ingredient here. 

Still on the topic of peppers, this year we’re growing five different kinds of chillies. These vary on the Scoville scale rating from Jalapeños (2,500-10,000 SHUs), to Hungarian Hot Wax (5,000-15,000 SHUs), Lemon drop (40,000-60,000 SHUs), Ring of FIre (70,000-80,000 SHUs) and Habanero (100,000 to 350,000 SHUs). We hope hot-sauce fans will appreciate getting their hands on these more unusual kinds and experimenting in the kitchen, perhaps pickling them or flavouring vodka/olive oil. At the moment, it’s just the Hungarian Hot Wax but soon we hope to offer mixed punnets and a bit of a Russian Roulette of spiciness! 

In terms of other produce, our aubergines are off and away, both the Barcombe classic Black Beauties and a heritage variety called Prosperosa which we were bowled over by - such meltingly tender flesh as well as being eye-catching architecturally: they are ribbed, violet affairs that you might want to appreciate for a while on your kitchen counter before dicing up. As a cheeky aside, we saw that Natoora sell these for £3.90 a pop and they’re not even organic. Ours obviously are, and are £2.50! In terms of cooking aubergines, the key is to make sure they’re gorgeously gooey, rather than reminiscent of chunks of insulation. If you’re rustling up a curry, the secret is to pre-roast like you would for a parmigiana or lasagne so you don’t have to worry about them being underdone (see the recipe below which also makes use of our glorious French beans- who’s had some of the deep purple Blauhilde ones? Yellow ones are incoming which reminds us… have you had a bunch of our candy-striped and golden beets?). 

In more nightshade family-related news, we’ll be harvesting our second lot of tomatoes soon, the ones we grew from seed. We’re excited to add six more varieties to our current four. As well as Sungold (the orange ones), Sungrape (the mini-plum), and our two red cherries, Sakura and Cheramy (which tend to be slightly smaller), we’ll be including:

Datterini (which is Italian for ‘small date’): another mini-plum we found noteworthy in 2022, firmer-skinned and almost… smokey?
Bartelly: another red cherry that also stood out amongst multiple varieties in our 2022 trials 
Ciliegia: a traditional Italian cherry tomato described as “the sweetest and most aromatic of all”!
Santiam Sunrise: a relative of the beloved Sungold cleverly developed to be ‘open pollinated' (which means we could save their seeds) 
Mango Lassi: a new breed with a taste apparently reminiscent of, you guessed it, mango- Phoebe just couldn’t resist.
Ruthje: which the catalogues wax lyrical about - we’re impatient to see whether they deserve the capitalised description of EXCEPTIONAL.  

We’ll also have Brad’s Atomic Grape tomatoes, which are those bigger, bonkers-looking ones, available as a separate product. As soon as we bit into one we knew we’d have to grow them again. They were bred in California by Brad Gates (known as the “Willy Wonka” of tomato breeding) and immediately won Best in Show at The National Heirloom Exposition. We were rather concerned they’d be photogenic but wishy-washy taste wise, so were pleased when we found their exceptional flavour on a par with their technicolour skins. Counterintuitively, the fruits start out a deep indigo which darkens to almost black, then turns like a tie-dye t-shirt with olive green, rusty orange and sunny yellow streaks. The best way to tell if yours are ready to slice is to ignore the topsy-turvy colours and give them a little squeeze.

Turning to peak-summer produce sourced from other farms, the end of Spanish stone fruit is a way off yet but definitely in sight, so make sure you get your fill while you can. Apricots, nectarines and peaches are a real challenge for us (one minute they’re rock hard and the next minute they’re mouldy beyond any salvageability, even for those pack shed scavengers with the lowest of standards). We hate waste (not to mention getting photos of sad specimens), and this especially pains us when we compare it to the ease which we can manage stocks of fruit that stores well. However, whilst it can be a bit hit and miss, we know it’s worth persevering with, not just because when stars (and weather and travel conditions) align and the juice is dripping down to your elbows we hope you’ll agree they take some beating, but also because during the summer there’s a period when oranges are South African, kiwis are Argentinian and apples are from New Zealand. (Not for long though, as Matthew is delivering his Discoveries any minute). 

We’re super keen to provide more UK fruit but the reality is that without inflating prices of other produce to compensate, we’d have to retail strawberries at £3.50 per 150g and cherries at £5.80 for 250g. Obviously, we’re of the opinion there’s no better investment that good food, but in the current economic climate suspect this is a little too much of an extravagance for most?
 
To end on a high, rather than a whine, we’re loving having Crispin’s new potatoes from just around the corner at Boathouse farm and for brassica lovers undergoing withdrawal, new season UK broccoli, savoys and romanesco will bring some relief!