So finally Winter has arrived … proper frosts for the first time since February, scraping the windows of the car every morning! Let’s hope we now settle into a series of long cold spells to kill some bugs, condition the soil, vernalise the garlic and tulips and, most importantly, help rectify some of the immediate oddities of climate change. Although pretty, it was definitely disturbing when one of our Crab Apple trees started blossoming two weeks ago!
Anyway, just as the frosts have decimated our wonderful Dahlias and Nastertiums, I’m leading with a painting of “Sun Flowers” – well a kind of “Sunflower” – obviously not Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, this is actually Monet’s painting of a vase of Jerusalem Artichoke flowers. Neither a relative of the Artichoke nor with any connection to Jerusalem, this native of North America, seems to have been named Girasole (Italian for Sunflower) by early Italian settlers – over time, English speakers modified Girasole to the more familiar Jerusalem. Artichoke was added to the name as some found the flavours of the cooked vegetables similar!
As all the top growth of our Jerusalem Artichokes has, of course, died with the frosts, it’s the perfect time to start harvesting their tubers titled ‘best soup vegetable’ in the 2002 Nice Festival for the Heritage of French Cuisine. So a welcome return to the menu this weekend for our Jerusalem Artichoke Soup. One of the simplest and most delicious soups we serve, this will be on the menu through to the end of December.
Next Thursday evening we are running a Thanksgiving X Gastrophysics Supper Club – the perfect pick-me up, perhaps, after the “gloom” of Budget Day! Our Mad Professor, Charles Spence, will return to explain the iconography of the Thanksgiving meal and to deconstruct some of its culinary tropes. Tickets for this special evening are selling fast but the remaining slots are available by clicking here.
On a housekeeping note, please be aware that both shop and restaurant are closed all day tomorrow, Saturday 22nd, for a private event. We will be open again on Sunday as normal for Brunch and Lunch
