We've had a glorious day today. Out wandering around a local dairy farm not far from us at nearby Trudoxhill. That's a small village between Frome and Shepton Mallet and we were well looked after by Paul and Rachel Candy.
We went there to talk pumpkins! Well it is October after all and if you've been growing your own Wee B Littles, Festivals (as we have!) or one of the larger varieties then you might want to know what you can do with them.
One of the things that Paul and Rachel have had some great success with has been in one of their diversification projects - they've planted an acre or so of land with four different varieties of pumpkin and are about to host their very own pumpkin festival!
Now one of their other successes has been the launch of Palette and Pasture and their very own Somerset Gelato - and yes, whilst we were there we sampled some of their wares. Delicious!
Those pumpkins are destined to be baked and then used to make a Pumpkin Sorbet. Now we could have had a quick look on the internet and came up with a recipe but whilst we were there we asked Rachel how an expert would make it. This is what she told us:
Ingredients - to make 4 litres of sorbet.
1500g of pumpkin - Rachel told us that the two we'd chosen should be sufficient.
800 ml of water
130g dextrose
550g granulated sugar
10g xanthe gum
Technique.
Slice your pumpkin and then bake it for 15/20 minutes at about 150 degrees.
When it's soft you'll be able to scrape all of the flesh away from the skin.
Add all of the ingredients together and whisk them together. Rachel's tip is to use either a blender or a food processor.
Then tip the mixture into a tray and put it all in the freezer. Take it out every 10 minutes or so and give it a stir until it's set. Another tip is that if you have a sorbet or icecream maker (we have a small one!) then you can use that instead!
When the mixture has set then pop it in the freezer - but not until you've tasted it!
And that's about it. Couldn't be easier. We'll certainly be giving it a go!
We might even use some of our own Wee B Little and Festivals.
And if you can, get yourself along to Pyle Farm and have a great day out. Like we did!
More seasonal recipes next month!