Fig and cinnamon ice cream

Fig and cinnamon ice cream made with honey-roasted figs

Salt-crusted and wrapped in beach towels, we’re standing on the polished concrete floor of our favourite holiday ice-cream shop, waiting in line though not standing still. The kids are darting off to check the cabinet and make up their minds, while I, their much more respectable adult, am subtly standing on tippy toes and peering around the people in front of me. My two kids have taken to betting which flavour I’ll get – plum, quince, prickly pear; if there is something fruity and unusual, it has ‘mum’ written all over it they reckon. The give me their vote; I feel annoyed, pigeon-holed; then invariably get what they thought. Continue reading Fig and cinnamon ice cream

Fig, feta and honey pizza

figs ripening under our net

Having dinner outside sometimes feels like our kids’ ticket to mucking around at the dinner table – wandering off on important missions such as to catch a cabbage moth stuck in the raspberry net, or to feed the chickens some basil. The eating can go on f-o-r-e-v-e-r as we don’t have the heart to tell them off properly and ruin the atmosphere. Instead we say a few semi-cross words, make sure they have a few more mouthfuls of dinner, then we’re back to having a conversation and they wander off again about a second later. But it’s so nice sitting out in the greenery with all of us enjoying our space. Continue reading Fig, feta and honey pizza

Fig and quark (or cream cheese) strudel

Fig and quark (or cream cheese) strudel

Figs, I’ve noticed, are surprisingly polarising. You offer them to some people and they act like you’re presenting them with a bag of precious gems, loaded with memories of childhood and warm autumn sun and being perched in the middle of their grandfather’s fig tree. And then, there are people who look at you with the deepest suspicion, as if sizing you up to see if you are actually serious. They take a moment, looking at the prospect of eating some kind of poison, then reply an awkward ‘no thanks’ and try to change the subject. Continue reading Fig and quark (or cream cheese) strudel