One evening’s harvest of quince and pomegranate.

On our walks around the village in these cooler evenings we now carry a bag to gather the pomegranates and quinces which grow in the hedge rows.
Now that the Vendanges are completely finished we have also taken to gleaning the vines for any odd bunches of grapes which the pickers may have missed, these are usually wonderfully sweet red fruits.

The quinces we turn into a delicious jelly, they have a bitterness which seems to balance the sugar perfectly.

The Pomegranates posed more of a problem.
We tried tossing the juicy seeds on fresh fruits but found them a little too astringent, the juice itself gave us a similar problem, although very rich and thick (and wonderfully easy to extract with my old restaurant juicer which is like a large garlic press) is also quite bitter.

Then we hit bingo, press the sweet juice form the grapes and mix fifty fifty with the pomegranate juice and you have a great drink for the mornings with just enough sharpness to set the palate zinging.
Our guests are loving it and the astute among you will have spotted that it costs us absolutely nothing.