Sharing

A few weeks ago I posted a message on the village app to say that I would put surplus seeds and seedlings in the redundant phone box outside our house for anyone to collect. Now other people are doing the same and every day or so something different is on offer. Red hot chilli seedlings today! (Yes, we are careful when opening the phone box door with it's metal handle, I always wear plastic gloves when I leave the confines of our garden.)

I gave away small lemon trees that I'd grown from cuttings and was very pleased to receive a thank you gift of eggs, two of them with beautiful pale blue shells. I used them in an almond cake made with a home-grown lemon and orange.

Tarta de Santiago

6 eggs separated   whisk whites until stiff.

250 g castor sugar   beat together with the egg yolks to a cream in separate bowl

250g  ground almonds    add to the sugar and egg yolk mixture

add grated zest of a lemon and an orange and slacken mixture with the juice.

Fold in the egg whites.

gas mark 4 for 30 - 40 minutes.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

The recipe is from an article by Claudia Roden in the Guardian newspaper some years ago. (She grinds whole almonds and adds almond extract but doesn't use any lemon or orange juice.) The cake is sold in the shops and cafés in the cathedral city of Santiago da Compostela in Galicia. Pilgrims and tourists visit because it is believed that the relics of the apostle St James are buried here. The cake is often decorated with the shape of a Santiago cross. 

Something else for the village to share are these oyster mushrooms. They look and taste lovely!