rose and fruit bearing adventures

I spent a little bit of time researching the roses I mentioned in my previous post and was momentarily attracted to the idea of purchasing bare root roses, which would make me feel like I'd been patient and that they were more mine alas alas, I couldn't wait until May 2013 which is when they are best planted. Instead we set off for Galston, North-West of Sydney. It's a very prettily settled rural area, we used to have horses there for a few years. The nursery we went to is called Green E Plants Rose Nursery. The owners were really knowledgeable and pleasantly peculiar which made it an even better experience. We bought 8 small potted specimens.

On the way home we spotted some side-of-the-road fruit, which is the very best kind of fruit. They were selling local nectarines, peaches and strawberries. Such warm bright colours and strong sweet fragrances, I couldn't resist buying far too many. We had extended family staying though so I justified my over-buying by pushing the precious fruit onto them in fresh, poached, barbecued and baked form.

When we were in Morocco in 2012, we came across locals cooking sardines in a Shwia {I'm not entirely certain how it is supposed to be spelt-I looked it up but can't seem to figure it out} over coals on the street. Basically, a Shwia is a hand held wire barbecue rack. We wandered around and bought two and have since cooked pilchards, prawns, sardines and peaches on them. They are really great to cook with because sometimes barbecues scare me a bit as I think I'll over cook everything. With this Shwia device, you can bring the delicious thing you are cooking as close to the coals/flames as you like and take it off very quickly-reassuring everyone involved that the thing won't get crisped.

silvery fish

I cooked the 'road-fruit with some thyme and rosemary on cooling coals for about an hour-checking them pretty oft. They were amazing, such a lovely rich flavour. We ate them with ricotta. The smell of them is incredibly enticing.

summery delights

 I also made an upside down peach cake which I was happy with. The peaches kept it quite moist so it was almost a pudding but the crumb was quite light somehow too. I'll post the recipe soon.