Surrey Homes | SH50 | December 2018 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Jane Howard’s
Fables from
the Farm
From decorating the house to making her own
wine, Jane’s excited about Christmas
It’s coming. I’m one of those people who gets completely
over excited at the very thought of Christmas and the best
part is always the planning and preparation.
First job is to quite literally deck the house with boughs
of holly – tra la la la la, la la la la (I think you’ll find that’s
the right number). However if you’ve left the task of
collecting said holly till these December days, you’ll be sorely
disappointed because there isn’t a berry in sight.
Branches that were laden in October have now been
stripped by the thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares and finches. So
next year be sure to cut branches early on and store them in a
shed in a bucket of water until it’s time to decorate.
At this time of year our very old and quite dark house full
of beams, nooks, and crannies comes into its own. By going
for quantity rather than quality and artfully shoving copious
amounts of greenery around the place, the effect, though I say
it myself, is rather enchanting. And not a cobweb in sight!
Then of course one’s thoughts turn to the Christmas feast
itself. Needless to say we always enjoy
a huge rib of Sussex beef with lots of
home grown veg but it’s always worth
testing people’s culinary nerve with a few
unusual extras.
The Meeches Prolific (a quince) has
been just that this year, we’ve baskets of them and, apart from
their lovely perfume, they add a certain something when
grated into the mince pie mix. They’re easy to deal with
compared with the medlar – a rock hard brown fruit that
looks like a big squashed rosehip.
I’m reliably informed they are quite a delicacy but first you
have to master the art of blatting – letting them rot gently
“The Meeches Prolific –
a quince – has been just
that this year”
so they morph into a soft and fragrant pulp which you then
enjoy with cold cream. Mine however seem to wilfully bypass
that part of the process, turning instantly from bullets into a
mildewy rotten mush, so the jury is still out on the joy of a
good medlar.
Has anyone else noticed a squirrel
explosion this year? We planted a
walnut tree about twenty years ago and
in the past few years it has come into its
own producing at least 60 nuts a year,
enough to enjoy with the port and Stilton on the big day.
Problem is from September the squirrel – same one or
many, hard to tell, but only ever one – arrives every morning
and busies himself burying one or two in the lawn. It is quite
endearing but without a trip to Waitrose or adding roast
squirrel to the menu it will be yet another nut-free occasion.
And then of course there’s the alcohol. We’ll be having the
professionally made variety with our dinner, but last year I
came across an ancient Sussex recipe for birch (as in the tree)
wine and thought it sounded light and sweet and might make
a passable pudding wine, so decided to give it a try.
In March, when the sap was rising, I cut off a branch, hung
a bucket on the birch tree stump and amazingly it soon filled
with sap. I boiled it with sugar, then using a piece of toast as
the pontoon floated a lump of yeast on the top for a few days,
added some almonds and ignored it thereafter.
It says in the book it will be a pale silvery gold wine, with
little flavour but a curiously pungent aroma and passable by
Advent. I can hardly wait.
Happy Christmas one and all!
Follow Jane Howard – and the farm – on Instagram @coopersfarm
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