This week in the stillroom

The stillroom has shifted into its autumn rhythm.
The hibiscus is nearly done.
The figs are off the tree.
The quinces (finally!) are in.

Quinces, this week.

A box from a local orchard, hard and pale yellow when they arrived, ripening on the counter to a soft gold & giving off that strange, almost-pineapple perfume they get just before they're ready.

They become the Quince Cordial with Cardamom.

The cardamom is doing what cardamom does – which is making everything around it taste a little more like itself.

Hibiscus, the last of it.

The flowers were small this week. Late-season heads, deeper red than the ones from January, with the slightly drier note that the very last of a crop carries.

Paired with rhubarb that came in so tender (lovely surprise!), it'll be going into the Rhubarb Cordial with Hibiscus.

Two more batches and the hibiscus is done for the year.

Cape gooseberries aka Fairy Lanterns.

Bright orange inside their papery husks, exactly when you'd want them.

They're becoming my new variant Gooseberry & Honeysuckle Cordial. The vine is bare at the moment. I'm so happy I thought of drying the last flowers back in January.

Pomegranates, in for a week or so already.

These are going into another new variant: Rose & Pomegranate Cordial.

I might try a jam too, if my vision of liquid Turkish Delight is realised!

A little tip for those that, like me, believe whole pomegranates are a lot of work… I've discovered that juicing these is easy work on a lemon juicer.

Fig leaves, too.

Not for the cordial (that's already bottled for now) but for the freezer.

There's a brief window left to pick them, blanch them, and stack them flat for use through winter.

I wrote about it in On fig leaves. Spoiler alert: Dolmades, anyone?