At Market Cross we prefer to provide as much homemade, homegrown produce as we can to our guests.

What we did

To add to this we planted some fruit trees/plants a couple of years ago in order to be able to “grow our own” in the future. These consisted of pear, plum and apple trees and 3 rhubarb plants. These didn’t do very much in the first few years but last year was very different. The plum and apple trees were laden with fruit but the pear was a little more stubborn with a small number of pears. Still, as the pear tree had done absolutely nothing for 3 years we considered it a bounty. The rhubarb we took nothing from the first year as it should be. But last year we were spoilt by the amount we were able to harvest. All of the above homegrown produce was put to good use.

What we did with it

The plums we halved and baked in the oven with a little brown sugar and served warm. Perfect with our homemade granola. The pears we poached in a light vanilla syrup. This will keep them fresh for sometime if kept in an airtight container. A Kilner Jar is ideal for this but make sure the syrup covers the pears. The apples we made little breakfast fruit crumbles. These were lovely with a bit of yoghurt or we just stewed them and again served warm. The rhubarb was simply cut into bite size chunks and baked in the oven with some sugar and simply served warm again. Usually this went nicely with some yoghurt and a little granola on top. We found that guests loved the idea of us using our own homegrown fruit. Our breakfast menu can be seen here https://marketcrossguesthouse.com/dining/#toggle-id-1

We should also mention we have an elderflower tree growing out of our garden wall. Not an ideal location but it also produces things we can use to add to our homemade repertoire. We make our own elderflower cordial from the flowers which is quick and easy. Very refreshing in cold water in the summer. The homegrown elderberries which come later we use to make elderberry jam. This is a new one for us and we only started last year, again lovely. One other use for the elderberries is to make elderberry vodka. All we’ll say is that is doesn’t last long and let’s leave it at that.

Planting and looking after fruit trees is new to us and another aspect of the garden to look after. We are however looking forward to it and the many other homemade things we can find to do with our homegrown fruit.