Whilst leafing through on of my library of cookery books yesterday I came across this lovely seasonal recipe for Geranium Cream in Tamasin Day-Lewis's book, Tamasin's Kitchen Bible:-

300ml/10fl oz double cream
75g/2.5 oz of caster sugar
2 rose scented geranium leaves
140g/5oz cream cheese

Put the cream, sugar and the leaves in a bowl over a pan of hot water and heat gently until the cream is hot (don't boil). Remove and leave until cold. Slowly add the cream cheese and mix until smooth and creamy. Cover and leave in cool place (not the fridge) for 12 hours.
Remove the leaves and put in servng bowl.

Tamasin recommends serving this with fresh raspberries or blackberries both of which are appropriate at this time of year.

I intend to try this at the weekend while our Rose Scented Geranium is at it's peak.

I happened upon the award winning chef Tom Aikens on Twitter this week twittering as @tomaikens.

His tweet "Just finished service 90% flower menu, did someone say it was Chelsea flower show week???" caught my eye as I'm really interested in the edible flowers trend; I love both flowers and food.

Here is Tom's website where you'll find the phone number and you can even book online! It's £45 for lunch menu, coffee on top (with lot's of petit fours!)

Whether you're going to the Chelsea Flower Show or not this is the perfect May lunch menu.

Roast scallop with Nasturtium, carrot dressing and puree
Goats cheese mousse with broad beans, flowers and leaves
Confit of salmon with Viola and pickled radish
Chicken with lemon risotto and Marigolds
Poached rhubarb with Rose petals

Isn't this gorgeous? Inspired?

Images courtesy of Tom Aikens

A Twitter conversation yesterday about Asparagus with the lovely Suse who twitters as @guardianfood made me realise how lucky we are down here on this farm in West Sussex.

Our office, floristry studio, workshop and packing shed are not based on our actual rose farm. We're a few miles futher east on the A272 on another farm; Durleighmarsh Farm.

Durleighmarsh farm is a fabulous farm in own right. It's famous for growing Asparagus with 100 acres of farm land allocated to it!

The farm supply many very important retailers with Asparagus but you can also buy it freshly picked on the farm from the brilliant farm shop which is run by Alison and Roger.

It's wonderful here in the summer too as 25 acres acres are devoted to 12 fruit crops and over 20 different types of vegetables and herbs - most of which you can pick yourself in season.

Back to the Asparagus! Its £2.70 for approximately 19 spears (454 g) or 2 for just £5, and £4.25 for the kitchen-grade basket (1.36 kg) which is perfect for soups, tarts and just general eating.

Luckily, I absolutely love Asparagus. My favorite way of eating it when it's as fresh as it is on this farm is to simply boil it for 5 minutes then serve with either butter or olive oil and parmesan shavings. Fabulous!

Here is yet another great article about edible flowers and what to do with them:
Make a meal of them by Annie Gatti for The Sunday Times.
There are some great ideas here and of particular interest to me was the fact that historically we used flowers to cook with but we seem to have lost the ability and the knowledge.
This is definately worth re-learning not least because we eat with our eyes as well as our taste buds and our food will look amazing!

When I started writing this blog one of the things I wanted to explore was the whole idea of cooking with flowers.

I LOVE cooking and have been collecting recipes and experimenting with flower cookery for the last 10 years. The facination began when I started growing vegetables on an allotment in the borough of Richmond upon Thames. Many of the vegetables and herbs that I was growing were in flower before I had a chance to pick them and they always looked so beautiful!

It seems I'm not alone in my interest as this great article by Alison Tyler in today's Independent newspaper suggests!

Tasty buds:From hibiscus to honeysuckle, flowers are springing up on all the best menus

I'm planning a party at the end of July and I now know that my theme will be a fusion of flowers and food. This is also a fabulous idea for a uniquely fragrant wedding don't you think?

Any recipe suggestions gratefully received!

This scented rose arrangement is magical for an intimate dinner in a private dining room.

I'm a huge fan of the ''Slow Food'' movement which was set up by an Italian journalist, Carlo Pedrini, in response to the advance of the fast food culture. I had the honour of meeting the President of the ''Slow Food'' movement recently in Selfridges Food Hall (where we now have a shop) when I was introduced to him by Selfridges Food Director, Ewan Venters. He loved our scented roses and herbs which I was thrilled about as I have long believed that the ethos of our company fits perfectly with the principles of the ''Slow Food'' movement which aims to preserve traditional agriculture in order to both safeguard the environment and ensure that local artisanal products remain viable in the competitive and commercial world in which we live.
We have provided table decorations for one of their events in the past and the UK branch and slow food website are well worth a look at.

My personal branch of the ''Slow Food'' movement was called to action this weekend with a Jam making session. The change in the seasons from Summer to Autumn has to be one of my favourite times of year and, although it's not officially that time yet, the shorter days, lack of sunshine and distinct chill in the air are a reminder that the soft fruit season will soon be over. The pots of jam (blueberry, strawberry and raspberry) are now proudly displayed in my kitchen. Our workshop is located here at Durleigh Marsh farm which has a wonderful farm shop and specialises in 'pick your own' fruit and vegetables in a gorgeous setting - well worth a visit if you are ever driving along the A272 between Petersfield and Rogate. They specialise in soft fruit and this is where I picked the fruit for my Jam.
I also made a delightful Rose Petal Sorbet this weekend and would urge you to try it.

600 ml water
225g granulated sugar
A handful of scented rose petals (bitter yellow ends removed)
1 strip of pared lemon rind
Juice of a small lemon
2 Egg whites

Dissolve the water and sugar in the pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the petals and the rind and boil for 10 minutes. Leave to cool and then strain, pressing the petals to extract the juices. Add the lemon juice and pour into a container. Freeze until slushy then beat to break down the ice crystals. Whisk the egg whites and fold into the sorbet. Return to the freezer and freeze until firm. Serves 6-8.

This is fabulous served between courses of Moroccan food....

What a wash out this week has been.
The roses are in full bloom in my garden and yet there's little chance of spending any time outside to enjoy them . The rain is damaging the heads and the petals are strewn all over the flower beds.
With more of the same predicted for the weekend I've been cutting the partially open blooms to bring indoors and in addition to displaying them all over the house I've decided to collect the petals to make my first ever batch of Rose Petal Jam.
Be sure to use the heavily perfumed varieties and make sure they haven't been sprayed with insecticide!

225g rose petals
225g sugar
4 tablespoons water
1 dessertspoon orange juice
1 dessertspoon lemon juice

Wash the petals and remove the white 'heel' which is very bitter. Place the petals in a pan and add the remaining ingredients. Stir on a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. Use a jam thermometer
for this. Cool slightly before pouring into warm , sterilised jam jars and seal immediately.

I will be making my jam on Saturday and will let you know how I get on!