THE KITCHEN garden is full of vegetables begging to be eaten. We’re surrounded by divine summer fruit: raspberries, strawberries, boysenberries, loganberries, red currants, white currants and the last of the gorgeous ripe gooseberries.

Makes 2¾ pints (425ml).

THIS delicious boozy way of preserving summer fruit is great fun to do, but it only works if you use really good quality fruit — preferably unsprayed — and spirit.

Fingal Gets Gold: Congratulations to Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen Farmhouse Products Ltd. on winning a gold medal at the Great Taste Awards 2007 for his delicious chorizo sausage. www.gubbeen.co.

Another splendid cake, which keeps well.

Serves 8

If you grow your own radishes try this peppery pasta sauce, particularly when some of the radishes are too big and woolly to be good raw.

Courgettes are tasty eaten raw, fresh and simple.

The River Café team demonstrated this at Sarah’s cookery school some years ago and she’s made it many times during the summer ever since — perfect when the garden is full of beans and tomatoes.

This makes a good pudding, served warm with cream, crème fraiche or Greek yoghurt.