The Gladwin Family Journal
Snapshots, Reels and Observations from August, by Peter Gladwin
More Than Just Grapes: A Cornucopia of Produce
A cornucopia is a goat's horn of plenty, overflowing with fruits, flowers and of course corn-on-the-cob - a
celebration of harvest. Lani Gladwin's flowers, vegetables, salad and fruit growing at Nutbourne is in its prime, sowe have an abundance of pattypan squashes, honeydew melons and sweet juicy tomatoes.
I am reliably told that the tiny cucamelons (which look like a miniature marble sized melon and tastes like a sweet tender cucumber) have a retail value of £50 per kilo - and we are just putting them in vineyard picnics!
Meanwhile the chicken mobile home has been moved again, this time adjacent to a footpath, which has boosted egg sales no end. I compare their life in the vines to a cruise holiday - they go to bed one night, Gregory hooks up a tractor and tows their custom-built home to a new location, then lo and behold, they wake up in the morning to a brand new vista!
Our cattle continue to flourish down on the water meadows by Amberley castle and the sheep are doing well, now out of the vines as the grapes are ripening and the temptation to nibble would be too great.
All together a real life cornucopia of natural produce!
This Month's Food Champion: Blackberries
Country walks double in enjoyment when the hedgerows are filled with wild blackberries that are plump and juicy - you can literally gather by the handful. The tell tale is a purple stain round the mouth when you return from dog walking duties. Blackberries have to be our August/September champion to use in both savoury and sweet cooking, or freeze as a treat for the leaner winter months.
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IN THE WILD
• Puff Balls & Summer Mushrooms
• Cobnuts, Rose Hips & Hawthorn Berries
• Hedgerow Blackberries, Sloes & Damsons -
FROM THE COAST
• English Channel Octopus
• Red Mullet• Line Caught Sea Bass
• Mussels, Oysters & Clams
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FROM THE LAND
• Apples, Plums, Pears & Autumn Raspberries
• Melons, Cucumbers, Courgettes & Butternut Squash
• Fennel, Heritage Carrots, Aubergine |& Celery
• Grouse & Wood Pigeon
SEASONAL RECIPES
Someone came up to me this week to ask whether the Puffball recipe featured in An English Vineyard Cookbook was a spoof - “Are they really edible?, I thought they were just something kids kick like a foodball to make a cloud of yellow dust?!" How wrong they were - Puffball is one of the most succulent, meaty fungi of them all - fried in garlic butter there is nothing quite like it.
We are delighted to share a few more of our favourite seasonal recipes to enjoy at this time of year.
Giant Oyster Mushroom Carpaccio
Oliver's delectable raw mushroom dish captures everything the giant Oyster has to offer - both earthy and succulent, he describes it as “The Flavours of the Forest Floor”, with Vintage Red Leicester, Lemon, Chilli and Truffle Oil
Steak Tartare
Many of us adore Steak Tartare but are cautious about making it at home. With fine and patient knife work you can enjoy this 'rare' dish as a regular treat.
Berry Pavlova
I know I go on about mulberries and unless you are lucky enough to have a tree in your garden, they are difficult to get hold of. However, I could not resist including this beautiful recipe from An English Vineyard Cookbook.
The recipe works equally well with blackberries and as there is a glut of the fruit in the hedgerows this year I urge you to try it.
Bramble & Apple Salsa
In September the countryside is overflowing with wild blackberries, apples and wild herbs. This simple recipe is all about cooking & feasting outdoors.
Richard Pitches White Burgundy Against Bordeaux
Family members don’t always agree on which wine is best - one brother prefers the softer rounded vanillary white Burgundy, the other prefers the burst of rich gooseberry and flinty dry tang of the Bordeaux. Both the small parcel wines Richard is considering for our Local & Wild London restaurants are excellent.
Watch the expert give his considered opinion from his deckchair in a reel →
LOCAL & WILD UPDATES
What's New on the Restaurant Menu
Oliver arrived at the family home unexpectedly this week - he had just bought a thousand moorland grouse from Yorkshire and delivered them to the 5 restaurant kitchens. Fortunately for us, a few birds had remained on the van. He proceeded to cook them with wild chanterelles, a little creamed cawliflower, wild sorrel and a Fino sherry and elderberry jus. The whole preparation appeared to take only minutes and It was quite literally “to die for”. We all ate it so quickly that there was not even time for a photo but thankfully we can show you Oliver’s lovely paintings - a grouse in the heather on the Yorkshire moors.
Alongside the Grouse there are also lots of other new delights on the restaurant menus including, King Scallops with Artichokes and Apple; Ox Tongue, Haricot Beans, Capers and Aioli; and King Oyster Mushroom Capaccio.
Prepping for the Grape Harvest
We are anticipating an early and delightful harvest. I have looked back at our 35 years of records and have never had grapes this ripe, sweet and flavoursome whilst we are still in the month of August. The key thing now is not to lose the crop - birds, foxes, deer and badgers all think that the fruit is delicious too. We fence with electric wires, fly kites above, let off random very load bangs (a joy for the neighbours) and net the key areas.
Spreading a huge net over rows of vines is not an easy task. Gregory, ever the inventor of labour saving devices, has welded this extraordinary attachment onto a tractor so that the net feeds out high above the trellis to be draped over the vines! Apparently the Aussies call it “A Brides Veil”. Watch us netting our German grapes →
There are also tanks and presses to be cleaned, picking boxes to get out and a willing team of local pickers to coralle- all in readiness for the most exciting part of the winemaking year.
Harvest Farm Feast in September
19th & 20th September
We couldn’t resist: by popular demand the Gladwin Brothers are popping up in the vineyard for one more special occasion this year...
Join us for a Nutty and canapé outdoor reception then candelit dining, in the Wine Lodge or Barrel Room, with this year's wine ferments bubbling around you; Oliver is creating a fabulous 4 course dinner of local produce and Richard is pairing this with an array of Nutbourne’s finest wines.
Photography by: Ed Dallimore, Catherine Frawley and Olivia Thomas.