Ballyvolane House Hedgerow Martinis

IT’S the “season of mist and yellow fruit fullness” and despite the warm misty weather there are a few mushrooms about.

I found a little scattering of field mushrooms on the grass under the windows of the garden café earlier this week — just enough to make a tiny feast for one when I cooked them directly on the cool plate of the Aga with no embellishment, except for a few grains of sea salt and a knob of butter.

Driving across from Cahir over the Knockmealdon Mountains last week I collected lots of rowanberries from the mountain ash, the trees were dripping with plump berries. We added them to crab apples to make delicious rowanberry jelly. It’s a terrific year for crab apples (wild apples) too, but if you don’t find any in your area use Bramley windfalls or a mixture of tart apples. You can substitute elderberries for rowan berries in the apple jelly or even mix both. Throw in a handful of sloes and blackberries as well and then change the name to Hedgerow Jelly. Elderberries are also good pickled.