Bärbl is coming for supper and this is the pudding of the moment!  White and red currants are ready and the English cherries at their best. – Susan

Collette and Les are having an opening party for their allotment plot. We begin to believe it is an allotment plot but for a time there were rumours that Les was building a miniature Taj Mahal. Les is taking great care with careful brick laying, edging and seed planting. I could picture their plot winning an award at the Chelsea Flower…

My daughter-in-law Sam is having fun with allotment produce. Strawberry jam sounds good ! And now the courgettes are growing inches every day. Never let them get too big.  What you cannot eat give away; large courgettes never will become marrows. Here our favourite everyday recipe is to cut the courgettes into batons, dust them…

Hunting through my store cupboard, I came across chickpeas near their best before date. In homage to Greece, I had to use them and made hummus. Perfect for an easy  summer lunch as we had a rustic loaf, Pecorino cheese, crisp lettuce and some radishes to hand. – Susan

Inspiration for this salad came from Natalia Conroy’s book, The Kitchen Orchard. Refreshing and tangy, it was excellent yesterday, served with salmon, for a pre-theatre supper. 2 medium sized raw beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated 3 eating apples, peeled cored and coarsely grated A bunch dill, stalks removed and finely cut 1 tsp capers 1 tsp Dijon…