White peach and mint agua fresca





On hot summer days when it's too hot to eat this is the drink I want to sip all day using the delicious white peaches. Neither a soft drink nor a fruit juice, agua frescas, which translates as “fresh waters” in Spanish, is a subtly flavoured refreshing drink that is not too sweet.
Agua Frescas are sold by street vendors throughout Mexico and their carts are loaded with huge glass barrels of delicious thirst-quenching fruity flavours. You can use watermelon or strawberry, but my favourite is white peach. There is a gorgeous stone fruit farm in the next village from us and during the summer months gorge ourselves on cases  of their peaches and nectarines.   
Whatever fruit you can get your hands on, adjust the sweetness to your taste and ripeness of the fruit.  Just remember it’s around 1 part fruit to 2 parts water.  You can also vary the recipe by adding mineral water or even vodka or tequila if you want a grown up version.
White Peach & Mint Agua Fresca
Makes about 1.2 litres
6 or 7 very ripe white peaches, quartered, stone removed
4 cups very cold water
2 teaspoons agave nectar or 2 tablespoons caster sugar, or more to taste
Juice of one lime
Handful of mint leaves
Lots of ice
Add the fruit and 2-3 cups of the water to a blender and puree until smooth. Strain through a sieve into a large jug.
Add the rest of water, agave, lime juice and mint leaves.
Stir well and add ice and more water and sweetener if needed.
Serve chilled – it’s nicer if you let it sit for a few hours in the fridge to get really cold.

Life is just a bowl of cherries





There's been a lot going on around here lately. I seem to be running from one thing to the next.  Some highs and some lows.  Happy times and sad.   My girl turned ten (!) We celebrated Christmas with good food and good friends.  I felt like I ran a marathon prepping and working for a friend at the Taste Festival.  And MoMa keeps going from strength to strength.

But for the most, it's hard to think about anything much than the devastation that has hit our island.  So many homes lost to intense bush fires.  So much devastation.   Heartbreaking.

The flip side is the incredible show of community spirit as people come together to help those in need.

Humans are amazing.

The camera sits forlornly on the table.  Not used much lately.  But then amidst all the goings one, there was a moment I photographed with Hugo.  After a friend gave us a huge bucket of cherries from his tree.  I took them and I sat with Hugo on the verandah and we ate those cherries.  As the cherries stained his clothes, I taught him an important life skill.  That is, to spit the pips over the railing.  

I sat and looked down at what's left of my garden, at the shrivelled leaves on the fruit trees, the wilted berries and the dead brown grass.  All decimated after 40 plus temperatures, crazy hot winds and no rain for weeks.  Not a drop.  I try to feel grateful that I still have a garden.  Plenty don't. I do feel grateful but it is still hard nonetheless.  

So I sit with my son, spit pips over the railing and life seems perfect for a moment.  I forget about the bad stuff, breath in the moment, remember the good and finish that bucket of cherries.

Feeling incredibly lucky really.

Taking over the kitchen

I love it when guests take over the kitchen.  I really do.  I love the sharing and talking, the tasting and the excitement of eating something new when people come in the kitchen and cook.

On the weekend there was plenty of that.  Foraged mussels steamed with garlic from the garden, just-caught fish, steamed and stirred through just-picked garlic scape soup.  Slow roasted juicy pork ribs from a friend's pig and fresh new pink eyes fried crispy in a pan, washed down with cider from down the road and gin from across the peninsula. Food we had grown, caught, foraged ourselves, or knew who did, was prepared, shared and eaten.  It doesn't get any better than that. I love that.  

There was also a dog named Henry, I think I loved him the most.