Lavender and Tarte Tatin

I’ve had this event in my diary since early this year – the lavender harvest.

For some reason, sometime earlier this year I suddenly thought “I wonder if there are any lavender fields in London”.  I googled it and not only was there a lavender field in London, it was really close to us and they’ve got an annual harvest weekend.  So I entered the dates in my diary and finally the weekend rolled round this week.

It was a small affair with a few stalls selling lavender products (soap, oil etc) and a big field of lavender where you can pick your own and pay for them later on.

It wasn’t what I was expecting in that I thought I’d be hit with a great gust of lavender scent once I got into the field but there was nothing.  Maybe a very slight whiff of lavender but generally it just smelt like summertime in England.  The lavender was pretty though.  We didn’t bring any money so we didn’t end up picking any, we just took some photos and that was it.

I’m still glad I went.  As I grow older I find I’m appreciating nature more and seeing the field of  vivid purple lavender against the sunny sky made me happy.  It made me happy to live where I live, knowing I’m so close to a beautiful bit of nature.

GM and I were going over to our mates’ for dinner that night so when I got home I embarked on my first attempt at making an apple tarte tatin.  Tarte tatin is a French dessert and it’s essential an upside down apple tart.  First the apples are caramelised in lots of butter and sugar before it’s covered with pastry and bunged in the oven.

It came out pretty good!  It was a bit darker than I wanted it to be though so I had no choice but to test it before giving it to my mates hehehe.  In the end I gave them half the tarte; GM and I ate some each and left a couple of slices at home.  Next time I make it I’m going to cook the apples later so that they retain a bit of bite to them and obviously I’m not going to let the butter and sugar caramelise too much before I put the whole thing in to bake otherwise it’ll turn out too dark again.  I’ll also probably use a different variety of apple because I used cooking apples this time and they turned out quite tart so between the apples and the sugar my tarte tatin was overly flavourful.

The pastry, however, was a triumph and I’m really happy because making tart pastry is a daunting thing for me!  See how flaky it was?

Tomorrow I have to do a written assignment which is part of a job interview.  It’s like a written exam during which I’ll be given a stack of documents to write a report on in one hour.  After that I have to have a little 10 minute discussion with the examiner.  Yikes.  Please pray for me I do really well and don’t freeze, especially in the discussion bit!  Thanks!